floccinaucinihilipilification

Meaning

Noun

• The act or habit of describing or regarding something as unimportant, of having no value or being worthless.

Origin

• Latin floccus + naucum + nihilum + pilus + -fication
• A jocular coinage, apparently by pupils at Eton College, combining a number of Latin word stems. The word was inspired by a line in the Eton Latin Grammar (published in the early 19th century), in which some nouns commonly used in the genitive case with some verbs like pendo and facio are listed, which express evaluating something as worthless or as previously mentioned:
• "flocci of a lock of wool, nauci of a nut-shell, nihili of nóthing, pili of a hair, assis of a pénny, huius of this, teruncii of a fárthing, addúntur are ádded, peculiáritèr pecúliarly or véry próperly vérbis to verbs æstimándi of esteéming."