FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFiCATION

PRONUNCIATION: (FLOK-si-NO-si-NY-HIL-i-PIL-i-fi-KAY-shuhn)

MEANING: noun: Estimating as worthless.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin flocci, from floccus (tuft of wool) + nauci, from naucum (a trifling thing) + nihili, from Latin nihil (nothing) + pili, from pilus (a hair, trifle) + -fication (making). Earliest documented use: 1741.

NOTES: This word was coined by combining four Latin terms flocci, nauci, nihili, pili, all meaning something of little or no value, which were listed in the well-known Eton Latin Grammar of Eton College in the UK. The word seems to be popular in the US government. It has been heard from the mouths of White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry, Senator Robert Byrd, and Senator Jesse Helms, among others. A related word is floccipend.
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FLOCCI-NAUCCI-NIHILI-PILI-FICATION - declaring Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit and his siblings to be trivial and utterly worthless (they were, you will recall, Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter)