nugacity means futility; trifling talk or behaviour; drollery. It carries an Arena rating of 1700, earned across 52 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, nugacity ranks #396 of 17,151 for The Improbable, #2,309 of 17,140 for Most Whimsical Words, #3,134 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #3,875 of 17,163 for Funniest Words.
Why “nugacity” is a great word
NUGACITY — [Noun] The quality or condition of being trivial, futile, or given to trifling talk. From the Latin nugacitas ("trifling"), from nugax, nugac- ("trifling, frivolous"), itself from nugae ("trifles, jokes"). First attested in the late 16th century. Unlike "nugatory," which dismisses something as having no formal force, or "drollery," which suggests a quaint, crafted amusement, nugacity is the very essence of the insubstantial. It is the scent of a perfume sample in a discarded magazine, the meticulous polishing of a spoon that will tarnish by evening, the earnest debate over a comma in a document no one will read—the quiet, accumulating weight of all that signifies nothing.
Etymology
From Latin nūgācitās (“trifling”), from nūgāx, -itās. Further from nūgor, from nūgae.
noun
- futility; trifling talk or behaviour; drollery
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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