Crosswords1 min ago
dictionary
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what is the longest word in the dictionary
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http://www.fun-with-words.com/word_longest.html
This gives answers - but there's a bloomin ad over the words and it won't shift! GRRR!
Correct spelling is floccinaucinihllipilification
The 'flocci...' word contains 29 letters, which is rather fewer than 'supercalifragilisticexpialodocious' (34 letters) from the film, 'Mary Poppins'. In case you doubt whether it counts as a "real" word, I have to tell you that it, too, is in The Oxford English Dictionary!
That does not alter the fact that the word I offered in my earlier response is much longer than both.
Dear Peri, here's the definition in TOED...
"a nonsense word used especially by children, now chiefly expressing excited approbation...fantastic...fabulous."
As a matter of interest it is quite a lot older than 'Mary Poppins'. In fact, it was the subject of a lawsuit against Disney by a music publishing company. They had used it in the 1940s, spelt slightly differently, and accused Disney of infringing copyright. As usual, however, "God was on the side of the big battalions" and they lost their case.
Should add that my Oxford gives the P word as 'an artificial long word said to mean a lung disease'. Sounds as if it's there under protest - I suspect someone with an interest in words created it, took it round crossword contests and that sort of thing, persuaded other people to use it often enough to get it into the papers, and thence into dictionaries. It's also the longest in Webster's, the main US dictionary.
If you're going to make up words, you could always try optosseoaudicarnisanguinovicericartilaginonervemedullary, which is a desription of the body listing all the main organ systems.
Other languages have different long words - German, for instance, piles up words together pretty much ad infinitum. Fritz Spiegl once quoted Hottentottenpotentatentantenattentat: an attempt on the life of the aunt of a Hottentot potentate.
Yes, Jno, but exactly the same criticism can be levelled at the 'flocci...' word. It, too, was created as a sort of 18th century joke, based on the Latin grammar book used at Eton. The 'supercali...' word was a deliberate concoction for effect, also. The longest of the technical monsters apparently opens with the letters �methionyl...' and goes on for a further 1900 letters!
However, regarding the actual question set here by Frandora, the 'pneumono...' word remains "the longest word in the dictionary" as far as anyone who accepts TOED as the grand-daddy of all English dictionaries is concerned, given that the question itself was posed in English. Cheers
We've had the "What is a real word?" debate here on AnswerBank before, J. Given that all words in all languages were deliberately "created" at some point in time, it's a bit of a waste of time trying to decide what is genuine - for want of a better word - and what is artificial.
In my home, we are constantly creating words. If I, for instance, say: "Where's the thrackle?", my partner knows instantly that I mean the cat. (God knows how!) And we long ago decided to stop using the silly word "Oops!" when almost colliding or whatever. Instead, we say "Squawk!" Now, I know 'squawk' is a real word out there in the big wide world, but is it any less real as used in this humble home?
I paused at that point to check in TOED whether there was a word 'thrackle'. There isn't, but as a matter of interest 'to thrack' used to mean cram or pack full. We live and learn!
Basically, I'd say that, if a word is in the public domain - as opposed to just this address - it's real. Cheers
astonishingly, nobody seems to have mentioned floccinaucithracklipilification (the act of estimating that something is a cat). Yes, QM, my thoughts were more along the line of calculating that a word was 'real' if it ever appeared outside the realms of discussions of words. Has any miner ever actually been diagnosed with P? Has any theologian really discussed A? I don't suppose we will ever know.
