Shashi Tharoor’s floccinaucinihilipilification makes KTR pull out dictionary

The names of drugs used in the treatment of COVID-19 are often hard to pronounce or remember. However, they have now become a major part of the news and lives of many, thanks to the ongoing pandemic. If you have ever wondered who comes up with such complicated names for these medicines, you are not alone.

Telangana minister and working president of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), KT Rama Rao, posted a list of names in a tweet and wondered who comes up with “unpronounceable” names for these drugs. In his next tweet, he suspected Congress leader Shashi Tharoor to be the one as the politician is well-known for his vocabulary that sends one running for a dictionary.

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Tharoor was quick to respond to KTR’s suspicion and declared himself not guilty. Not-so-surprisingly, he replied to Rao with two lesser-known English words that are rarely used: floccinaucinihilipilification and procrustean.

Tharoor also took this opportunity to take a dig at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Baba Ramdev and said that if the decision was left to him, he would have named the drugs “CoroZero”, “GoCoroNaGo!” and “Coronil”.

To save you some time, here is the meaning of these words. While ‘floccinaucinihilipilification’ means ‘the action or habit of estimating something as worthless’, the word ‘procrustean’ means ‘enforcing uniformity or conformity without regard to natural variation or individuality’.

Like many of us, KTR also had to pull out his dictionary to understand what Tharoor wrote in his tweet. “Had to pull out a dictionary & Tharoorosaurus to comprehend. P.s: loved the Coronil dig,” he tweeted.

Tharoorosaurus is a book written by Tharoor himself. It’s a list of unusual words, their meanings, origin and even anecdotes.

This hilarious conversation between KTR and Tharoor led to even funnier reactions from their followers and other Twitter users. 

While some thought Tharoor just made up some word to prank people, others said his tweet was “Tharoorifying”.

“Even dictionary is updated regularly based on what @ShashiTharoor talks. I wonder how he memorize these words and use it accurately,” a user wrote.

“Hahahahahaha.. let’s have a medical dictionary too by @ShashiTharoor,” another said.