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Positively trivial
<B>The British Council?s language clinic with ?Dr Danny?
Hello and a very warm welcome to The English Language Clinic. This week I have been asked ?Is ?trivia? negative or positive?? Many words in English have either positive or negative associations (or ?connotations?); for example the adjective ?skinny? is often used negatively, whereas ?thin? is used in a more positive sense. The word ?trivia? (the plural form of ?trivium?) is used with both positive and negative connotations; to describe a piece of information, or question which is unimportant or interesting in a limited way. I will now introduce you to some English language trivia; the words are all quite long, so if you suffer from ?sesquipedalophobia? (a fear of long words), please do not read any further.
Let?s start with ?floccinaucinihilipilification? (describing something as worthless); it?s the longest non-technical word and it contains the most repeated letters (9 ?i?s). Three words share the honour of being the longest word with no repeated letters (known as ?isograms?), including ?dermatoglyphics? (the study of fingerprints, palm prints, and footprints made by naked feet). The longest word with only one vowel (and one syllable) is ?strengths? and the longest with all the vowels in ?order?, is ?abstemiously? (without overindulgence). The longest word with no vowels is ?rhythms? and the word with the most definitions is ?run?, it has 76 possible meanings! Finally (I promise); there is something special about the word ?redivider? (someone who separates something which has already been separated), can you see what it is?
I hope that you have enjoyed this selection of trivia; if not, hopefully I have demonstrated that often the connotations a word has are more to do with the interests of the individual. By the way, ?redivider? is the longest ?palindrome? in English.
Please send your comments, queries and questions to ?Dr Danny? at the English Language Clinic by emailing the following address [email protected]
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