nugatory
adjective

- of no value or importance, useless or futile

- of no force or effect; ineffective

Oxford Languages, Dictionary Com

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WORD ORIGIN

The word "nugatory" may sound like a fancy term for a candy bar (hence today’s sweet-tasting quiz option), but it actually has a rather trivial origin.

The term dates back to the early 1600s and comes from the Latin nugatorius, meaning "worthless" or "trifling." This, in turn, derives from the verb nugari, meaning "to trifle" or "jest”.

Essentially, anything nugatory is as valuable as a jester's jokes—entertaining perhaps, but ultimately of little consequence.

The word has evolved to describe something that is not only trivial but also ineffective or futile. So, if you ever find yourself in a situation where your efforts seem to be going nowhere, you might describe them as nugatory. It's a sophisticated way of saying, "Well, that was pointless!”.

Despite its seemingly grandiose phonetics, "nugatory" is a delightful word to deploy when you want to add a touch of erudition to your expression of frustration over something inconsequential. Next time a friend makes a mountain out of a molehill, you can gently remind them that their concerns are, in fact, quite nugatory.

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SYNONYMS

A drop in the bucket, a flash in the pan, a storm in a teacup, baseless, bootless, chaff, chicken feed, empty, fallacious, fiddling while Rome burns, flimsy, footling, frivolous, fruitless, futile, inadequate, immaterial, inconsequential, ineffective, ineffectual, insignificant, insubstantial, invalid, irrelevant, lightweight, meaningless, meritless, negligible, nominal, NUGATORY, null and void, of no account,  of no moment, paltry, petty, picayune, pointless, puffery, redundant, small beer, small potatoes, specious, superficial, trifling, trivial, unavailing, unimportant, unsound, useless, vain, valueless, void, worthless

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a sentence, say something like:

“There’s a lot of dissatifaction around these days; I find many complaints quite NUGATORY.”

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