Floccinaucinihilipilification Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description

Floccinaucinihilipilification is the act or habit of esteeming or describing something as worthless, or making something to be worthless by said means.

It is pronounced \\'flä-chE-'nau-chE-ni-'hi-lE-'pi-lE-fI-'ca-shun\\. (Pronunciation Symbols) It may also be pronounced "FLOK-sih-noh-see-NEE-hee-lee-PEE-lih-fih-KAY-shun".

It is the longest non-technical word in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, where it dates back to 1741. The first use the OED gives is from the poet William Shenstone in 1741: "I loved him for nothing so much as his flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication of money".

It is said to have been made up as an erudite joke by an Eton College student, who, upon consulting a Latin textbook, found four words meaning 'nothing' or 'worthless,' tacked them all together, and added verb endings. The OED called it "a well-known rule from the Eton Latin Grammar." The four Latin words are:

• floccus, -i a wisp or piece of wool, used idiomatically as flocci non facio - "I don't care" (literally "I don't make a piece of wool")
• naucum, -i a trifle
• nihilum, -i nothing; something valueless
• pilus, -i a hair; a bit or a whit; something small and insignificant

In fact, as given in the OED, the word includes four sets of quotation marks and is presented thus:

"Flocci" "nauci" "nihili" "pili" fication

The OED appears to have overlooked the more popular present form, floccinaucinihilipilificatious, which has one letter more than the nominal form, and means "small" or "insignificant."

It is often spelled with hyphens, and has even spawned the back formations: floccinaucical ("inconsiderable, trifling") and floccinaucity ("thing of small importance").

Quotations

• Sir Walter Scott (Journal, March 8, 1826, with 'pauci' as the second element rather than 'nauci'):

[... I] have arrived at a flocci-pauci-nihili-pili-fication of money, and I thank Shenstone for inventing that long word.

• The comic strip Zippy the Pinhead (March 14, 1996):

"Do you think I may be too quick to find fault with things and people, Zippy?"

"Yeh."

"Th' 'floccinaucinihilipilification' process."

"Th' what?"

"Floccinaucinihilipilification!! It means 'the estimation of something as valueless'!"

"You've been randomly reading th' dictionary, haven't you?"

"Yes. That and my natural tendency toward antifloccinaucinihilipilification!!"

• Jesse Helms, in reference to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty:

"I note your distress at my floccinaucinihilipilification of the CTBT." (Helms claims he learned the word from Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan)

• Mike McCurry, United States President Bill Clinton's press secretary:

"But if you -- as a practical matter of estimating the economy, the difference is not great. There's a little bit of floccinaucinihilipilification going on here."

• Robert A. Heinlein, in The Number of the Beast:

"Sharpie darling, you are a floccinaucinihilipilificatrix."

"Is that a compliment?"

"Certainly! Means you're so sharp you spot the slightest flaw."

I kept quiet. It was possible that Zebadiah meant it as a compliment. Just barely- "Maybe I'd better check it in a dictionary."

"By all means, dear-after you are off watch." (I dismissed the matter. Merriam Microfilm was all we had aboard and Aunt Hilda would not find that word in anything less than the O.E.D.)

• Bob Black, in "A Study In Floccinaucinihilipilification"[1]

slams anarchists Murray Bookchin and Timothy Balash

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