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