pecksniffery

Etymology

From Pecksniff + -ery.

pecksniffery means hypocritical or sanctimonious behaviour or language. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.

Why this word is great

PECKSNIFFERY — [Noun] Hypocritical or sanctimonious behavior or language, especially of the kind that feigns high moral principles. From the proper name Pecksniff (after Seth Pecksniff, a hypocritical character in Charles Dickens's 1844 novel *Martin Chuzzlewit*) + the suffix -ery (denoting a characteristic action, behavior, or practice). Unlike sanctimony (a general outward display of piety) or cant (the hollow jargon of insincere speech), pecksniffery is a full-bodied performance of fraudulent virtue, a character type made flesh. It is the damp, lingering handshake of a man professing charity while foreclosing on a widow, the saccharine condolence offered solely for an audience, and the public sigh over fallen standards from one privately engineering their collapse—a theater of morality where the only sincere element is the performer's contempt for the credulous.

noun

Hypocritical or sanctimonious behaviour or language.“Dangerous stuff. The worst kind of cant and pecksniffery.”