Floccinaucinihilipilification

Floccinaucinihilipilification is the act or habit of esteeming or describing something as worthless, or making something to be worthless by said means.

It is the longest non-technical word in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, which presents it "as enumerated in a well-known rule from the Eton Latin Grammar". The OED dates its first use in literature at 1741 in William Shenstone's Works in Prose and Verse: "I loved him for nothing so much as his flocci-nauci-nihili-pili-fication of money".

Though the OED gives no specifics on its derivation, the word is said to have been invented as an erudite joke by a student of Eton College, who, upon consulting a Latin textbook, found four words connoting 'nothing' or 'worthless', combined them, and added verb endings:

floccus, -i a wisp or piece of wool, used idiomatically as flocci non facio ("I don't care"; more literally "I don't make wool")
naucum, -i a trifle
nihilum, -i nothing; something valueless
pilus, -i a hair; a bit or a whit; something small and insignificant

In fact, as given in the first edition of the OED, the word includes four sets of quotation marks and is presented thus:

"Flocci" "nauci" "nihili" "pili" fication

It is often spelled with hyphens, and has even spawned the back formations floccinaucical (inconsiderable or trifling) and floccinaucity (a thing of small importance). The OED appears to have overlooked floccinaucinihilipilificatious, which has one letter more than the nominal form, and means "small" or "insignificant."

The word is sometimes misspelled as floccinaucinihilipipification.

Pronunciation

A number of pronunciations have been suggested for this word, including the following (shown in IPA}:

/ˌflɒ.kɪˌnɒ.kɪˌnɪ.hɪ.lɪˌpɪ.lɪ.fɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/
/ˌflɒ.ksɪˌnɔːsɪˌnaɪ.ɪl.ɪˌpɪl.ɪf.ɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/
/ˌflɑ.tʃi.ˌnaʊ.tʃi.nɪˌhɪ.liˌpɪ.li.faɪ'kæ.ʃən/
/ˌflɑ.sɪˌnɑ.si.nə.hɪl.ə.pɪl.ə.fɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/
/ˌflɒk.siˌnoʊ.siˌnaɪ.hil.i.ˌpɪl.i.fɪ.keɪ.ʃən/.

Noted Occurrences

The word is used in a humorous Geico commercial, in which young students struggle to spell the word in a spelling bee.
Jo Brand on the "QI" show - BBC Four Episode 4/11 - Aired Thursday 25th August 10:30pm.
1995 Daily Press Briefing by Mike McCurry, president Clinton's Press Secretary
Used in feminine genitive form of floccinaucinihilipilificatrix by Capt. Z. John Carter when referring to his mother-in-law, Hilda Mae Burroughs, in Number of the Beast by Robert A. Heinlein. The same author also used the masculine genitive form in Puppetmasters earlier in his career.