Question

Meaning of "floccinaucinihilipilification"​

Answer 1

Latin floccus (“a wisp”) +‎ naucum (“a trifle”) +‎ nihilum (“nothing”) +‎ pilus (“a hair”) + -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 some words irregularly in the genitive case: “Flocci, nauci, nihili, pili, assis, huius, teruncii, his verbis, aestimo, pendo, facio, peculiariter adduntur”.[1] This translates loosely to: “The words floccus, naucus, nihilum, pilus, assis (“penny”), hic (“this”) and teruncius (“farthing”) are irregularly used with the genitive case with these verbs: aestimo (“to appraise value”), pendo (“to weigh, to pay”), facio (“to make”)”.