Saturday, December 19, 2015

Grammars At Eton Are Rife With "Jocular Coinage" Potential

From wiktionary:


floccinaucinihilipilification

IPA: /ˌflɒksɪˌnɒsɪˌnɪhɪlɪˌpɪlɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/, /ˌflɒksɪˌnɔːsɪˌnaɪhɪlɪˌpɪlɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/

English

Noun

floccinaucinihilipilification ‎(uncountable)
1. (often humorous) The act or habit of describing or regarding something as unimportant, of having no value or being worthless.

Etymology
Latin: flocci, from floccus (a wisp) + nauci, from naucum (a trifle) + nihili, from nihil (nothing) + pili, from pilus (a hair) (all having the sense of "pettiness" or "nothing") + -fication.

A jocular coinage, apparently by pupils at Eton College, combining a number of roughly synonymous Latin stems. The word was inspired by a line in the Eton Latin Grammar that gave a rule for certain verbs that take an object in the genitive case: "Flocci, nauci, nihili, pili, assis, hujus, teruncii, his verbis, aestimo, pendo, facio, peculiariter adduntur." This translates literally to: "To these words—aestimo, pendo and facio—irregularly are joined flocci, nauci, nihili, pili, assis, hujus and teruncii.” Or more loosely, "The verbs aestimo, pendo and facio when used in the sense of “to value” or “to care” irregularly take the following objects in the genitive case: flocci, nauci, nihili, pili, assis (a “penny”), hujus (this) and teruncii (a “farthing”)." 

 

No comments:

Post a Comment