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  1. floccinaucinihilipilification love

Definitions

Wiktionary

  1. n. The act or habit of describing or regarding something as unimportant, of having no value or being worthless.

Etymologies

  1. A jocular coinage, apparently by pupils at Eton, combining a number of roughly synonymous Latin stems. The word was inspired by a line in the Eton Latin Grammar that listed verbs that govern a genitive noun: "Flocci, nauci, nihili, pili, assis, hujus, teruncii, his verbis, aestimo, pendo, facio, peculiariter adduntur." Latin flocci, from floccus, a wisp or piece of wool + nauci, from naucum, a trifle + nihili, from the Latin pronoun, nihil ("nothing") + pili, from pilus, a hair, something insignificant (all therefore having the sense of "pettiness" or "nothing") + -fication. (Wiktionary)

Examples

  • “Unfortunately he did not live long enough to marvel with me at the word "floccinaucinihilipilification" (29 letters), which I discovered by chance in my unabridged dictionary last year.”

    The Union - All Categories

  • “The floccinaucinihilipilification of no planes theory (that no planes crashed on 9/11) has proven to be not only -- how can I say it -- floccinaucinihilipilificatious, but wrong.”

    OpEdNews - Diary: No Planes

  • “My grandmother once gave me a T-shirt that said “floccinaucinihilipilification” on it.”

    flocculate | clusterflock

  • “Just because 'fleece' makes me think of 'floccinaucinihilipilification' ...”

    Human Brain Cloud

  • “Y U purrtisapayt in floccinaucinihilipilification?”

    Meow-mix - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?

  • “Where else can you find a derivation of floccinaucinihilipilification?”

    Ping and Pimp « Whatever

  • “Just the other day, I ran across "knapsack problem" and "floccinaucinihilipilification" (a word, the dictionary informs us, used primarily as an example of one of the longest words in the language).”

    Archive 2005-11-01

  • “The article to which you like justly dismisses pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis as a hoax, and floccinaucinihilipilification as a mere stunt word, but then goes on to dismiss antidiestablishmentarianism on the grounds that it “has become limited to simply yet another example of a very longword”.”

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Guestblogging Dictionary Myths:

  • “Floccinaucinihilipilificators, or “Haters” for short, or “h8rs” for shorter, are people who engage in excessive floccinaucinihilipilification.”

    ideonexus.com » 2005 » July

  • “Floccinaucinihilipilificators, hay "kẻ thù ghét" cho ngắn, hoặc "h8rs" cho ngắn hơn, là những người tham gia vào các floccinaucinihilipilification quá mức.”

    ideonexus.com »2005» tháng bảy

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tags (9)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. long
  1. hate hate hate
  1. joke
  1. big word
  1. what the...?
  1. fun to say
  1. ccvccvcvvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvcvvc
  1. tbp
  1. sesquibidalian

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘floccinaucinihilipilification’.

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Comments

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  • ab Wow... Wat a word tis.....?!!! Jun 9, 2010

  • jmjarmstrong JM looks into his Floccinaucinihilipilification file and is surprised that it is almost full Apr 2, 2010

  • acapnotic http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-flo2.htm Jun 24, 2009

  • martin the tendency to find little or no value in things. Jun 3, 2009

  • claytonco Valuing something as worthless. As in, "I'm sick of that political party's constant nay-saying; it's sheer delight in floccinaucinihilipilification."
    This word is often listed as one of the longest in the language. A Patrick O'Brien and George Will type of word. May 14, 2009

  • rainerlourie flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication. A very nice word, definitely not useless!! Jul 31, 2008

  • brookdale_chick ??????
    WOW!
    big word!
    dunno if it is much good in the real world because NO ONE can read it.......
    SIMPLE WORDS FOR SIMPLE MINDED PEOPLE!! Jul 7, 2008

  • brokenwolf Au contraire! No word is totally useless. I've made lots of people laugh by being able to actually say it in addition to knowing what it means.

    It's a prime example of one of those "Phileas Fogg" words that erudite folks seemed to enjoy inventing in Victorian times. :) May 22, 2008

  • snoctipii ahahahahaha.... people, the word is a pun... Mar 9, 2008

  • cricket I think you guys are just egging uselessness on. Mar 2, 2008

  • seanahan I did not realize that, but it makes a lot of sense. The humor of Eton is lost on the rest of the world. Oct 21, 2007

  • vanishedone '1741, a combination of four Latin words (flocci, nauci, nihili, pilifi) all signifying "at a small price" or "for nothing," which were listed together in a rule of the well-known Eton Latin Grammar. The kind of jocular formation that was possible among educated men in Britain in those days.'

    http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/floccinaucinihilipilification Oct 21, 2007

  • super-charlotte i agree the word is totally useless. Sep 8, 2007

  • tankexmortis http://www.floccinaucinihilipilification.org/ Jan 31, 2007

  • dbmag9 Clearly this word is useless. Dec 2, 2006

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‘floccinaucinihilipilification’ has been looked up 5444 times, loved by 27 people, added to 134 lists, commented on 15 times, and is not a valid Scrabble word.