Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on October 10 again left Twitterati amused after coining a new and nearly unpronounceable word - floccinaucinihilipilification - while describing his book on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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

According to the Oxford dictionary, the word is a noun and means 'the action or habit of estimating something as worthless'.

This drew various reactions from Tharoor's followers on the social networking platform.

Made a sincere attempt to google the meaning of floccinaucinihilipilification.

 

It was worthless.

 

 

— Rafale Punster® (@Pun_Starr) October 10, 2018

 

The meaning of the word 'floccinaucinihilipilification' is smaller than the actual word.

— Insha Siddique (@inshasiddique85) October 10, 2018

I get a feeling of floccinaucinihilipilification when I don't know the meaning of floccinaucinihilipilification

— Sanjana Paul (@sanjanapaul28) October 10, 2018

 

Nihit trying the new word... When I first showed him, he was like wwoow that's a lot of alphabets @Smohanjlr pic.twitter.com/r1nEg7ouVH

— Revathy (@RevathyNS) October 10, 2018

Tharoor responded to his followers on October 11, apologising for an outburst on Twitter over the new word. His response too, however, included his love for the language and propensity for little-heard and little-used words.

He tweeted a new word, hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia, and asked Twitterati to not bother looking it up as 'it's just a word describing a fear of long words'.

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

 

Apologies for doing this to the young! https://t.co/QIoZnY9CED

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) October 10, 2018

For Twitter users in India, politician Shashi Tharoor's Twitter handle is an exceptional space to learn lessons on English diction, comprehension, and lexicography.

The Congress MP keeps making headlines for his mind-boggling linguistic skills and quick wit by introducing the Indian social media to words like 'webaqoof' and the rather popular one – 'farrago'.

Another such instance was when Tharoor made an indirect comment on a former ally and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar's shift to the NDA. The MP and politician from Kerala tweeted: "Word of the day! — Definition of *snollygoster* US dialect: a shrewd, unprincipled politician; First Known Use: 1845; Most recent use: 26/7/17."

Word of the day!
Definition of *snollygoster*
US dialect: a shrewd, unprincipled politician
First Known Use: 1845

Most recent use: 26/7/17

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) July 27, 2017

 

In February this year, he introduced 'troglodytes' to the Twitter world in a response to Vinay Katiyar's comment on the Taj Mahal.

"We can't let these troglodytes destroy our country & everything beautiful in it," he tweeted.

The MP from Thiruvananthapuram had earlier described the coverage of the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar by a news channel as an "Exasperating farrago of distortions, misrepresentations and outright lies being broadcast by an unprincipled showman masquerading as a journalist".

Exasperating farrago of distortions, misrepresentations&outright lies being broadcast by an unprincipled showman masquerading as a journalst

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 8, 2017

In December last year, he used the word 'rodomontade', meaning boastful or inflated talk or behaviour. "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 tweeted.