Bottoms Part 33
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Floccinaucinihilipilification Dictionary.com listen (help·info) (American English: listen (help·info)) (or variously floccipaucinihilipilification) is "the act or habit of estimating or describing something as worthless, or making something to be worthless by deprecation".
With 29 letters, it is the longest non-technical word in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which presents it as "enumerated in a well-known rule from the Eton Latin Grammar". The OED dates its first use in literature at 1741 in William Shenstone's Works in Prose and Verse: "I loved him for nothing so much as his flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication of money".
Though the OED gives no specifics on its derivation, the word is said to have been invented as an erudite joke by a student of Eton College, who, upon consulting a Latin textbook, found four words connoting 'nothing' or 'worthless', combined them, adding compound suffixes -i-, and -fication (as in e.g. glor-i-fication, from facio, "to make or do")
* floccus, -i a wisp or piece of wool, used idiomatically as flocci non facio ("I don't give a hoot")
* naucum, -i a trifle
* nihil, -is nothing; something valueless (lit. "not even a thread" from ni+hilum)
* pilus, -i a hair; a bit or a whit; something small and insignificant
It is often spelled with hyphens, and has even spawned the back formations floccinaucical (inconsiderable or trifling) and floccinaucity (the essence or quality of being of small importance). The OED appears to have overlooked floccinaucinihilipilificatious, which has one letter more than the nominal form, and means "small" or "insignificant." When the common English nominal suffix -ness is then added to the above adjective, a thirty-four letter noun floccinaucinihilipilificatiousness is formed, which means "smallness" or "insignificance."
Floccinaucinihilipilification Dictionary.com listen (help·info) (American English: listen (help·info)) (or variously floccipaucinihilipilification) is "the act or habit of estimating or describing something as worthless, or making something to be worthless by deprecation".
With 29 letters, it is the longest non-technical word in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which presents it as "enumerated in a well-known rule from the Eton Latin Grammar". The OED dates its first use in literature at 1741 in William Shenstone's Works in Prose and Verse: "I loved him for nothing so much as his flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication of money".
Though the OED gives no specifics on its derivation, the word is said to have been invented as an erudite joke by a student of Eton College, who, upon consulting a Latin textbook, found four words connoting 'nothing' or 'worthless', combined them, adding compound suffixes -i-, and -fication (as in e.g. glor-i-fication, from facio, "to make or do")
* floccus, -i a wisp or piece of wool, used idiomatically as flocci non facio ("I don't give a hoot")
* naucum, -i a trifle
* nihil, -is nothing; something valueless (lit. "not even a thread" from ni+hilum)
* pilus, -i a hair; a bit or a whit; something small and insignificant
It is often spelled with hyphens, and has even spawned the back formations floccinaucical (inconsiderable or trifling) and floccinaucity (the essence or quality of being of small importance). The OED appears to have overlooked floccinaucinihilipilificatious, which has one letter more than the nominal form, and means "small" or "insignificant." When the common English nominal suffix -ness is then added to the above adjective, a thirty-four letter noun floccinaucinihilipilificatiousness is formed, which means "smallness" or "insignificance."
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PRIZE FOR ANYONE WHO CAN BEST USE THIS WORD IN ASSVILLE TODAY!
Floccinaucinihilipilification Dictionary.com listen (help·info) (American English: listen (help·info)) (or variously floccipaucinihilipilification) is "the act or habit of estimating or describing something as worthless, or making something to be worthless by deprecation".
With 29 letters, it is the longest non-technical word in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which presents it as "enumerated in a well-known rule from the Eton Latin Grammar". The OED dates its first use in literature at 1741 in William Shenstone's Works in Prose and Verse: "I loved him for nothing so much as his flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication of money".
Though the OED gives no specifics on its derivation, the word is said to have been invented as an erudite joke by a student of Eton College, who, upon consulting a Latin textbook, found four words connoting 'nothing' or 'worthless', combined them, adding compound suffixes -i-, and -fication (as in e.g. glor-i-fication, from facio, "to make or do")
* floccus, -i a wisp or piece of wool, used idiomatically as flocci non facio ("I don't give a hoot")
* naucum, -i a trifle
* nihil, -is nothing; something valueless (lit. "not even a thread" from ni+hilum)
* pilus, -i a hair; a bit or a whit; something small and insignificant
It is often spelled with hyphens, and has even spawned the back formations floccinaucical (inconsiderable or trifling) and floccinaucity (the essence or quality of being of small importance). The OED appears to have overlooked floccinaucinihilipilificatious, which has one letter more than the nominal form, and means "small" or "insignificant." When the common English nominal suffix -ness is then added to the above adjective, a thirty-four letter noun floccinaucinihilipilificatiousness is formed, which means "smallness" or "insignificance."
Floccinaucinihilipilification Dictionary.com listen (help·info) (American English: listen (help·info)) (or variously floccipaucinihilipilification) is "the act or habit of estimating or describing something as worthless, or making something to be worthless by deprecation".
With 29 letters, it is the longest non-technical word in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which presents it as "enumerated in a well-known rule from the Eton Latin Grammar". The OED dates its first use in literature at 1741 in William Shenstone's Works in Prose and Verse: "I loved him for nothing so much as his flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication of money".
Though the OED gives no specifics on its derivation, the word is said to have been invented as an erudite joke by a student of Eton College, who, upon consulting a Latin textbook, found four words connoting 'nothing' or 'worthless', combined them, adding compound suffixes -i-, and -fication (as in e.g. glor-i-fication, from facio, "to make or do")
* floccus, -i a wisp or piece of wool, used idiomatically as flocci non facio ("I don't give a hoot")
* naucum, -i a trifle
* nihil, -is nothing; something valueless (lit. "not even a thread" from ni+hilum)
* pilus, -i a hair; a bit or a whit; something small and insignificant
It is often spelled with hyphens, and has even spawned the back formations floccinaucical (inconsiderable or trifling) and floccinaucity (the essence or quality of being of small importance). The OED appears to have overlooked floccinaucinihilipilificatious, which has one letter more than the nominal form, and means "small" or "insignificant." When the common English nominal suffix -ness is then added to the above adjective, a thirty-four letter noun floccinaucinihilipilificatiousness is formed, which means "smallness" or "insignificance."
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