Word Of The Day 03-03-08

My Father was one of those great people who will never give you the answer, BUT will always give you the tools to figure it out. He did that with words in particular, by providing a dictionary, and a hint where to look. I grew up loving words, and spent a few years, around ages 10 & 11 looking through dictionaries, and encyclopedias kind of haphazardly. After that I got serious and over quite a bit of time read our set of Encyclopdias from A to Z, and Webster's Dictionary, from cover to cover.


I know it sounds kind of boring, but for me it was fascinating, and I search through items now, for things that I need to know, want to know, and things I never "knew" I wanted to know, until I found them in some obscure material.

Anyway I saw this word today, and thought it was so unique that I wanted to find out what it was used for, and here are the results.



Word of the Day
Floccinaucinihilipilification (noun)
Pronunciation: [flak-si-na(w)-si-ni-hi-li-pi-li-fi-'key-shên]

Definition: Holding or judging something to be worthless.

Usage: The word's main function is to be exhibited as an example of a long English word, longer by a letter than the word most people think is the longest, "antidisestablishmentarianism," but no match for "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis." There is also a widely underused verb, "floccinaucinihilipilificate." (A more useful noun with the same meaning is "floccinaucity" ['fla-si-'na(w)-si-tee].)

Suggested Usage: The word was first recorded in a letter by William Shenstone written in 1741 and published in 1777: "I loved him for nothing so much as his flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication of money". Don't forget that the verb is just as useless as the noun: "It is difficult for Flossie to avoid floccinaucinihilipilificating her nearly otiose husband, Otis."

Etymology: Back in the eighteenth century, the Eton Latin Grammar contained a rule that mentioned a set of words all of which meant "of little or no value": flocci, nauci, nihili, and pili. Someone, obviously, had to combine them and add the suffixes -ation to the result. Flocci is the plural of floccus "a tuft of wool" and pili, that of pilus "a hair." "Nihili" is from nihil "nothing," while "nauci" just means "worthless."

If you have any special or unique words, please share them with us!! Thank You!!


Have A Great Day!!