Thursday, June 25, 2015

Word of the Day

floccinaucinihilipilification
\flok-suh-naw-suh-nahy-hil-uh-pil-uh-fi-KEY-shuh n\

noun
1. Rare. the estimation of something as valueless (encountered mainly as an example of one of the longest words in the English language).

Quotes
…they must be taken with an air of contempt, a floccipaucinihilipilification of all that can gratify the outward man
-- Sir Walter Scott, “Wednesday, March 18, 1829,” The Journal of Sir Walter Scott, edited by W. E. K Anderson, 1972

Origin
Floccinaucinihilipilification is a combination of the Latin words floccī+naucī+nihilī+pilī each of which refer to something of little or no value. These terms appeared next to one another in a widely used textbook called The Eton Latin Grammar, and were combined in this facetious construction, which is first attested in the 1700s.

Dictionary.com