A word to share from WSITM ...

Dear Word Spy,

I have come to share a word...

floccinaucinihilipilification:

Estimation that something is valueless. Proper pronunciation based on Latin roots: flockə-nowsə-nəkələ-pələ-fək-ation

yours truly,

Word Spy in the making,
A. (13)


Dear A (Word Spy in the making),

Now that is some word. Thanks for providing the pronunciation guide - with those interesting letters from the phonetic alphabet (ah, let's talk about that in another post...)

That word, though, as you say, is made up from four Latin words:

floccum - a wisp of wool

naucum - something trivial

nihil - nothing

pilus - a hair


So in a way it's valuing something as a wisp of wool, trivial, nothing AND a hair. (Now that's specific.)

If you want to find out a bit more about this VERY strange and VERY long and VERY hard to pronounce word, look here:

http://www.spectator.co.uk/wit-and-wisdom/mind-your-language/7009938/mind-your-language.thtml

Thanks for sending me the word, which I value much higher than a hair!

yours, full of words,

The Word Spy