FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION

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Dr. Goodword
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FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION

Postby Dr. Goodword » Fri Jan 27, 2006 11:39 pm

• floccinaucinihilipilification •

Pronunciation: flahk-si-naw-si-ni-hi-li-pi-li-fi-key-shên • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: Considering something to be worthless.

Notes: I know what is on your mind: what is the purpose of a word no one but alphaDictionary's Andrew Shaffer can pronounce? (Even the spelling bee moderator in the current TV commercial stumbles over it.) It was, in fact, artificially contrived simply to serve as the longest English word, longer by a letter than the previous champion, antidisestablishmentarianism. Its victory has since been topped by the name of a supposed disease, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. There is also a widely unused verb, floccinaucinihilipilificate, and a more approachable noun, floccinaucity [fla-si-naw-sê-tee] "a trifle, something insignificance".

In Play: The word was first recorded in a 1741 letter by William Shenstone written in 1741 and unfortunately published in 1777: "I loved him for nothing so much as his flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication of money". Notice Shenstone analyzed the word into syllables so that his brain could keep up with them. In its one other publication, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, it was misspelled: "They must be taken with an air of contempt, a floccipaucinihilipilification of all that can gratify the outward man."

Word History: The 18th-century Eton Latin Grammar contained a rule based on a set of words all of which meant "something of little value": flocci, nauci, nihili, and pili. Some schoolboy, no doubt, lined them up and added the suffix -fication at the end as a joke. Flocci is the plural of floccus "a tuft of wool", pili, the plural of pilus "a hair", nihili is from nihil "nothing," while nauci is a word meaning "worthless". Together they make no sense at all but the word reflects our love of things of record size which ultimately led to the Guinness Book of Records and the silliness it still produces.
• The Good Dr. Goodword

tcward
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Postby tcward » Sat Jan 28, 2006 2:07 pm

I can pronounce it. And I'm sure the Dude can pronounce it. But I'm not sure many people have any interest in pronouncing it in the first place...

-Tim

Apoclima
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Postby Apoclima » Sat Jan 28, 2006 4:50 pm

This word is not worth biting my tongue over!

Apo
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Brazilian dude
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Postby Brazilian dude » Sat Jan 28, 2006 8:38 pm

And I'm sure the Dude can pronounce it.
Only if I remembered all the syllables :roll:

Brazilian dude
Languages rule!

tcward
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Postby tcward » Sat Jan 28, 2006 9:20 pm

It's easy for me to remember all the syllables...

..bum-ti, bum-ti, dadada-dadada-dum-dum!

-Tim :lol:


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