New Delhi: The new age Shakespeare aka Shashi Tharoor sent the world into a tizzy when he bombarded Twitterati with two excruciatingly long and hard to pronounce words. The inquisitive readers resorted to Google first to learn how to pronounce the word even before looking into the dictionary for its meaning.
The unapologetic king of words, Tharoor dropped the word 'FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION' on Twitter and the after effects were worse than the Hiroshima Nagasaki attack.
My new book, THE PARADOXICAL PRIME MINISTER, is more than just a 400-page exercise in floccinaucinihilipilification. Pre-order it to find out why!https://t.co/yHuCh2GZDM
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) October 10, 2018
Ironically, the word that gave a tough time to our tongues is defined by Oxford dictionary as the action or habit of estimating something as worthless. It also mentions that the word originated in the 18th century from Latin and that it occurs very rarely in genuine use. Tharoor, however, used it to introduce his new book on Prime Minister of India.
He tweeted, "My new book, THE PARADOXICAL PRIME MINISTER, is more than just a 400-page exercise in floccinaucinihilipilification. Pre-order it to find out why!"
Just when the Twitterati was reeling under the trauma of not being able to pronounce 'FLOCCINAUCINIHILIPILIFICATION with pomp, Tharoor dropped another bomb aka word 'hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia' but was kind enough to attach the meaning of the word.
I'm sorry if one of my tweets y'day gave rise to an epidemic of hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia!
[Don't bother looking it up: it's just a word describing a fear of long words].
But #TheParadoxicalPrimeMinister contains no words longer than Paradoxical! https://t.co/8h0zkcHnb2— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) October 11, 2018
However, the buzz around his word has not died down and it has apparently grown extremely popular among kids.
Sharing a video himself, Tharoor wrote, "What a cute baby & what a game trier! I doubt i could have done that at her age!"
What a cute baby & what a game trier! I doubt i could have done that at her age! https://t.co/6EBCfgLemV
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) October 12, 2018
Tharoor has previously used little-known words like farrago, webaqoof, snollygoster, puerile - among others. In fact, he has also given a reason for using these words "To all the well-meaning folks who send me parodies of my supposed speaking/writing style: The purpose of speaking or writing is to communicate with precision. I choose my words because they are the best ones for the idea I want to convey, not the most obscure or rodomontade ones," he had tweeted in December of last year.
Well, one must never forget to credit Shashi Tharoor for adding words to our dictionary quite unfailingly. But next time please go easy on us, Mr Tharoor!
