A George Will word

 

I was reading a George Will column in the Washington Post, and came across a word that I was absolutely certain I had not ever seen before.

nugatory

Now, my initial thought was that this had something to do with 

"a candy made from sugar or honey, nuts, and egg white", 

but that would have been "nougatory".  No, this word means

"of no value or importance", alternatively "useless or futile".

Here's the column that contained the word:

The Supreme Court will extinguish health-care hysteria