Floccinaucinihilipilification
( Listen? / I ) Floccinaucinihilipilification with 29 letters is the longest word in the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary and means disdain.
Etymology and Morphology
It was probably invented by a pupil of Eton College. It continues as a composite of the Latin words floccus ( flake ), naucum ( Nutshell ), nihilum ( Nothing ) and pilus (hair ), which identify all a small thing, worthless, and the suffix - fication together. The word was first used in 1741 by the English writer William Shenstone literary. He wrote the words to make it more readable, with hyphens: I loved him for nothing so much as his flocci - nauci - pili - fication - Nihili of money. On March 8, 1826 Walter Scott wrote in his diary I have succeeded in putting the matters perfectly out of my mind since I can not help them, and have arrived at a flocci - pauci - pili - fication of Nihili - money, and I thank Shenstone for inventing did longsword. Scott was obviously familiar with the work Shenstones and held him for the inventor of the word, which he, however, did not reflect entirely correct. The word must at any rate have fascinated him, for he repeated it in the diary entries for July 16, 1827 and 18 March 1829 respectively, in the which he is using different letters.
Robert Southey used in 1826 and the derived noun Floccinaucity ( invalidity ) and the adjective floccinaucical ( unimportant, trivial ).
Robert A. Heinlein also used the masculine form Floccinaucinihilipilificator ( The Puppet Masters, 1951) and the feminine form Floccinaucinihilipilificatrix ( The Number of the Beast, 1980).
Application
1983 titled the British magazine Punch a contribution with Floccinaucinihilipilification Falklands! , A satire about the respected by many as insignificant Falkland Islands to the possession of Great Britain had recently led the Falklands War.
Some U.S. politicians, such as Senator Jesse Helms, it is used as a rhetorical term to express strong disapproval.
At a press conference on December 6, 1995, it was by Mike McCurry, the Speaker of the then U.S. President Bill Clinton, used in a rather humorous intent: There's a little bit of Floccinaucinihilipilification going on here ... boy, you're going to have a great time with that, getting 'that' in the transcript - the longest word in the dictionary.
The word is also mentioned by the British musician Matthew Bellamy in an interview.