A word for our times?

floccinaucinihilipilification

This was the word-for-the-day on Dictionary.com yesterday. 

Rare. the estimation of something as valueless (encountered mainly as an example of one of the longest words in the English language). 

It dates back to about 1740 and takes its origin, we are told from  the Latin floccī + naucī + nihilī + pilī, all words meaning “of little or no value, trifling” + -fication.

“These terms appeared next to one another in a widely used textbook called The Eton Latin Grammar, and were combined into this facetious combination."

 While it is said to be rare, and I am willing to wager a small fortune that the majority of the three people who visit this blog have never heard it or used it in a sentence – click here if you want to know how to pronounce it --, I think it may be a word whose time has come. 

Doesn't "the estimation of something as valueless" strike you as particularly descriptive of the Republican presidential nomination process unfolding around us, the so-called clown car? Please note that the clowns in the illustration are standing in front of a [Grand Old] Party Store.

I am also reminded of so many grandstanding filibusters. They really should be renamed floccinaucinihilipilibusters.

And just how widely used was this Eton Latin Grammar anyway?