In a white kurta and pyjama, black Nehru coat, neatly parted hair and a prominent ID card, little Georgy Mathew was the perfect miniature member of parliament.
Slightly shorter than the microphone onstage, Mathew won first prize as the articulate Shashi Tharoor, MP from Thiruvananthapuram, at a fancy dress competition at his school.
Introducing himself as Shashi Tharoor, he waved to members of the audience before asking them, “Can you try saying floccinaucinihilipilification? I repeat, floccinaucinihilipilification?”
Needless to say, the audience burst out laughing. Some of them may have Googled the word furiously.
A noun of Latin origin, “floccinaucinihilipilification” is defined as the action or habit of estimating something as worthless.
“Hilarious! Well done Georgy!” retweeted Tharoor, who is known for his wide-ranging and often unusual use of the English language.
One of his most popular tweets on Arnab Goswami of Republic TV went viral in 2017, with various people attempting to use the words “exasperating farrago of distortions” in day to day conversation.
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