Ode to a Word

Floccinaucinihilipilification is a very long word, indeed.
Floccinaucinihilipilification is a difficult word to read.
Floccinaucinihilipilification is hardly ever seen or heard.

Floccinaucinihilipilification is one crazy tongue twistin' word.



Before I tell you what it means,

And of its derivation,

I’ll spell the word phonetically

To ease pronunciation.


FLOK-sih-noh-see-NEE-hee-lee-PEE-lih-fih-KAY-shun



You may think it somewhat absurd

That someone structured such a word,
But that’s exactly what was done,

Back in seventeen forty-one
.

At Eton, a scholarly bloke

One day decided, as a joke,

To craft a word so extreme

It would forever reign supreme.



His word must have a formal look,

And so within a grammar book

He found his every need was met

By four Latin roots in a set.



flocci — nauci — nihili — pili



The roots he chose all meant the same:

Worthless, without purpose or aim.

Using ink and a quill feather,

He linked the four roots together.


The roots did make a haughty stem,

But short a suffix was his gem.

He felt the word should be a noun

So, fication he jotted down.



Most certainly, with tongue in cheek,

The scholar’s word was coined unique.

Beat the drums and blow a brass horn:

The king of uppish words was born.


The first recorded use is known

To have been written by Shinstone.

The poet, in a letter penned

What he loved most about a friend.*

Jesse Helms, of judicial fame,

Intoned the great word to proclaim

That he noted his friends' distress

At his blocking a bill’s success. **


Entered with dry commentary

In the Oxford Dictionary

Is this concise definition

For floccinaucinihilipilification:


A witty word used for the act

Of deciding a value fact

That something is absolutely

Without worth, resolutely.



Perhaps one day, you too may want

To fashion a word as a stunt.

If you do, here’s a suggestion:

Keep it shorter than floccinaucinihilipilification.



Line count: 54


* Flocci’s first recorded use was by poet, William Shinstone, who, in 1741, wrote in a letter: “I loved him for nothing so much as his floccinaucinihilipilification of money.

** Jesse Helms (1999), in reference to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty stated on the senate floor: “I note your distress at my floccinaucinihilipilification of the CTBT.”