English

Wikiquote

Noun

floccinaucinihilipilification ‎(uncountable)

1. (often humorous) The act or habit of describing or regarding something as unimportant, of having no value or being worthless.
   • 1741, William Shenstone, Letters:

     I loved him for nothing so much as his flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication of money.

   • 1970, Patrick O'Brian, Master and Commander:

     There is a systematic flocci-nauci-nihili-pilification of all other aspects of existence that angers me.

   • 2000, Raymond J. Chambers, Logic, Law, and Ethics:

     Floccinaucinihilipilification in accounting - does it matter?

   • 2006, Sol Steinmetz, The life of language:

     They must be taken with an air of contempt, a floccinaucinihilipilification of all that can gratify the outward man.

   • 2009, Judith Orloff, Emotional Freedom:

     Some people with low self-esteem are prone to floccinaucinihilipilification, the habit of deeming everything worthless.

   • 2011, Bruce Ratner, Statistical and Machine-Learning Data Mining:

     The quasi statistician would doubtlessly not know how to check this supposition, thus rendering the interpretation of the mean profit as floccinaucinihilipilification.

   • 2012, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Hansard:

     Let me indulge in the floccinaucinihilipilification of EU judges and quote from the book of Amos about them.

Usage notes

Often cited as the longest non-technical word in the English language, being one letter longer than the commonly cited antidisestablishmentarianism. In the debate on the remuneration of EU staff, Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg used the word on 21st February 2012 making it the longest word ever used in the British House of Commons.

Related terms

• floccinaucinihilipilificate
• floccinaucinihilipilificatory
• floccinaucinihilipilificatious
• floccinaucinihilipilificatiousness

Translations

References

1. ↑ The Spectator: 11 June 2011