‘Floccinaucinihilipilification’ Trends After Delhi Court Uses Term To Dismiss Case Against Sitharaman

A Delhi court on Wednesday dismissed a criminal defamation case filed by Lipika Mitra, wife of AAP leader Somnath Bharti, against Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The case was heard by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Paras Dalal at Rouse Avenue Courts.

According to Live Law, Mitra alleged that Sitharaman made defamatory and false statements during a press conference on May 17. She claimed the remarks, made during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, were intended to tarnish her husband Bharti’s reputation and undermine his chances as an INDIA alliance candidate from New Delhi. 

The judge refused to take cognisance of the complaint, stating there was no sufficient ground to proceed further.  

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“I don’t see anything in this matter to proceed further and I am denying cognizance in this case,” the judge said. 

What caught people’s attention in this case was a rare English word used in the court order. “The word is floccinaucinihilipilification, which implies ‘something valueless or worthless’. The present complaint is nothing but the word stated above, wherein a valueless or worthless material has been stretched too long,” the court order said as quoted by Live Law.  

What Does Floccinaucinihilipilification Means? 

According to Cambridge Dictionary, the word “floccinaucinihilipilification” is defined as the act of considering something to be “not at all important or useful, used mainly as an example of a very long word.” 

The 29-letter-word is an “18th-century coinage that combines four Latin prefixes meaning ‘nothing’,” the website explained. 

It is pronounced as: flok-si-naw-si-nih-hi-li-pil-i-fi-kay-shun 

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, known for his love for complex English words, had made this term famous a few years ago. 

In 2021, Tharoor used “floccinaucinihilipilification” while joking with BRS leader K.T Rama Rao about complex Covid-19 medicine names. In a post on X, he jokingly scolded Rao for treating the complex Covid-19 medicine names as trivial. 

Not guilty! How can you indulge in such floccinaucinihilipilification, @KTRTRS? Left to me I’d happily call them “CoroNil”, “CoroZero”, & even “GoCoroNaGo!” But these pharmacists are more procrustean…. https://t.co/YrIFSoVquo

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 21, 2021

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