AWADmail Issue 213
June 11, 2006
A Compendium of Feedback on the Words in A.Word.A.Day
and Other Interesting Tidbits about Words and Languages
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From: Mike Kitney (mikekitneyATwestnet.com.au)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--internationalization
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/internationalization.html
I seems the word "internationalization" with its "z" is one of many signs
of the Americanisation of the English language.
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From: Ken Yap (etherbootATgmail.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--internationalization
The abbreviation i18n also avoids picking sides between internationalization
and internationalisation. Ditto for l10n.
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From: William Johnson (billwwjATatt.net)
Subject: droog (Re: A.Word.A.Day--honorificabilitudinity)
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/honorificabilitudinity.html
In the message for Tuesday, June 6, the word "droog" was listed in the
quotation from U.S. News and World Report, along with "dweeb" and "droop",
as an apparently English slang word, meaning "a member of a gang" and "a
young ruffian". If memory serves me, this word is found in the 1960s' novel
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, which is written in a carefully
crafted fusion of English and Russian slang. "Droog" is actually the
Russian word for "friend", which agrees with the meaning given in the
quotation. Other such Russianisms in the novel are "kleb" for "bread",
"horrorshow" for "good", and "on my oddy nocky" for "on my own". It is
perhaps worth mentioning that some readers unfamiliar with Russian thought
"droog" was a variant pronunciation of the English word "drug", and Burgess
was therefore unjustly criticized for popularizing drug use.
----------------------------
From: Lora Gunning (ldvger2ATaol.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--antidisestablishmentarianism
Refer: http://wordsmith.org/words/antidisestablishmentarianism.html
I first learned this word when I was about eight years old (1962) and it was
taught to me by my parents, ardent democrats both, who both also believed
very firmly in a strong separation between church and state. I was told
it was the longest word in the dictionary and my father sat me down at the
kitchen table and took the word apart for me, so that I might understand
both its meaning and the meanings of the various parts of the word. When
I saw that very long words were to be the topic of this week, I was hoping
antidisestablishmentarianism would be among the words you chose. In many
ways, it was this word, learned as an eight-year-old child, that gave birth
to my love of all words... and their meanings.
----------------------------
From: David Mercer (david.mercerATssigroup.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--antidisestablishmentarianism
As an Alabama citizen, today's word actually has some use, though I must
admit surprise that the noun "-ism" form is the oft-cited prototypical
example of a long word when its legitimate adjectival "-istic" form is two
letters longer. Use, in reference to last night's election results:
"Incumbent Bob Riley defeated his antidisestablishmentarianistic
challenger, Roy Moore, in yesterday's Republican primary for Governor."
The even longer 34-letter adverbial "-istically" could also legitimately
be used to describe Roy Moore's actions a couple of years ago:
"Chief Justice Roy Moore was deposed for acting antidisestablish-
mentarianistically when he refused the US Supreme Court's order to
take down his monument of the Ten Commandments."
----------------------------
From: Miles Jordan (boogiewoogieATmindspring.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--antidisestablishmentarianism
On Sep 30, 1947 Duke Ellington and His Orchestra recorded "You're Just an old
antidisestablishmentarianismist." Trumpeter/violinist Ray Nance was the
vocalist.
----------------------------
From: Barbara Wills (barbara.willsATstate.co.us)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
Refer:
http://wordsmith.org/words/pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.html
"Silicosis" and "black lung" are not synonymous. Silicosis is also known
as "brown lung" and is a fibrotic lung disease caused by exposure to
crystalline silica dust (rock mining where the rocks are silicaceous,
for example), while "black lung" refers to coal pneumoconiosis and is a
fibrotic lung disease caused by coal dust. Silicosis, coal pneumoconiosis,
and asbestosis are the three major occupational lung diseases associated
with inorganic dust exposures.
----------------------------
From: Shalini Srivastava (shalsriAThotmail.com)
Subject: Re: A.Word.A.Day--pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
> And what's the shortest word in the English language? There are a number of
> them: A, I, O, but we'll have to give it to I which is the skinniest as well.
But "I" is always inflated with ego ;-)
----------------------------
From: Vaughn Hathaway (pastorvehATcs.com)
Subject: Longest word
> A question I often hear (or read) is: "What is the longest word in the
> English Language?" My answer: "Depends."
Actually, when it comes to "Depends", that is not the only right question
to ask. Possible correct question to ask is: "What is the most absorbent
material in the world?" Or, "Do men like briefs or boxers?" The answer:
"It all 'Depends'."
Vaughn Hathaway with words!
-Anu Garg
----------------------------
From: John Foyston (johnfoystonATnews.oregonian.com)
Subject: longest word
My dear old Nottingham-born, Kipling-reciting, never-lost-his-English-accent
granddad asked me this question when I was a boy, and being a serious young
lad, I said that my dad had told me about the town in Wales whose name is
so long that its railroad name sign is often stolen by souvenir hunters. He
said, "No, that's not it --- it's smiles, because there's a mile between the
first and the last s.
----------------------------
From: Pierre Hullin (phullinATcisco.com)
Subject: longest word in French
In France, children learn from an early age, as a game (as they learn it
even before they know what a "word" is exactly), that the longest word
in their language is only one character ("letter" for them) short from
the number of letters in the alphabet. It has 25 characters :
"anticonstitutionnellement" (unconstitutionally).
The expansion ratio of French over English is known to be 20% positive.
As a spoken language, that is. In this case, when you just compare
the two words, coming from the same root and etymology, this ratio
reaches 40%! Well... This is just a game.
----------------------------
From: Katy Zei (katyzeiATgmail.com)
Subject: longest word in Italian
It's not English, but "precipitevolissimevolmente" is the longest word in
the Italian language, and ironically it means "really, really fast" even
though it takes forever to say.
----------------------------
From: Perry Sorenson (perry.sorensonAToutrigger.com)
Subject: Looong words
This week's theme reminds me of my days in Germany, where there is no
hesitation to combine words to have polysyllabic wonders. Friends I knew
there, also Americans, had young children, who were very adept in picking up
the language, and the wonders of putting words together to make new words.
Frustrated at not knowing the word for "fly swatter" one of their children
came up with "das Fliegentotschlagerdings" "the thing that kills flies".
Longer than "Fliegenklatche" but certainly more descriptive.
----------------------------
From: Teresa Schubert (tschuberATemail.unc.edu)
Subject: another long word
Another long word for today. Note the date - 6/6/06.
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobic: a fear of the number 666 or variants
thereof, from a Biblical verse linking the number to "the beast".
from:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/5051540.stm
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia
----------------------------
From: Mike Reed (telefilmATmegaweb.co.za)
Subject: Longest word in the English language
Users of English are perhaps spared some of the long, long words encountered
in other languages. In Afrikaans, as in certain other languages, the
components of place names and the names of organizations are written as one
word, as in Cape Town - Kaapstad. As a teenager in the late fifties, I used
to ride my bicycle to school up a hill past the Headquarters of the South
African National Fuel Research Institute. The name, both in English and in
Afrikaans, was painted in big letters on the wall. The Afrikaans version,
which took about two minutes to pedal past, was
Suidafrikaansenationalebrandstofnavorsingsinstituut.
----------------------------
From: Larry Berger (larry_bergerATcomcast.net)
Subject: Long word candidate
Of course, if proper nouns are allowed, there's always, Lake
Chawgogagogmanchawgagogchawbunagungamog here in Massachusetts. And that one
probably stands up quite well against any word from Scotland or Wales, but
that's really an attempt to create an English word out of one that comes
from some [American] Indian dialect. I believe that it translates to
something like the following: "You fish on your side of the lake; I'll fish
on my side of the lake; and neither of us will fish in the middle."
Then there's a farm in South Africa named
Tweebuffelsmeteenskootmorsdoodgeskiedfontein. See
http://www.bdb.co.za/shackle/articles/twee_buffels_update.htm
-Anu Garg
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From: Betty Bryant (bettyrobATsti.net)
Subject: Abbey's quotation
> If my decomposing carcass helps nourish the roots of a juniper tree or the
> wings of a vulture - that is immortality enough for me. -Edward Abbey,
> naturalist and author (1927-1989)
What a wonderful quotation! Thank you so much. I can think of very few
things less fulfilling than being in a box or metal urn throughout
eternity.
We take our friend, when his time has come, out into the woods. I sit on
the ground with him, with his head in my lap, stroking his face and telling
him what a good dog he is, or what a sweet kitty he has always been, and my
husband aims carefully, because, after all, he has tears in his eyes, too,
and then we leave him there. I could wish for nothing better for myself,
but ...
I am not going to be so lucky. We are fortunate enough to live in the
mountains, with no neighbors, but even so, my absence MIGHT be missed.
And there are laws.
Thank you for providing Edward Abbey's words so that I can express what
I have always felt, but didn't know how to say.
----------------------------
From: David Goldblatt, MD (dgoldblattmdATverizon.net)
Subject: redux redux
It was interesting to see that you used a postpositive adjective,
"restored", in translating the New Brunswick motto, "Spem reduxit." The
proper translation, however, is not "hope restored" but "He [she, or it]
restored hope." Spem is the accusative of "spes" (hope) and "reduxit" is the
past tense of the verb "reducere" (literally, lead back). I say all this in
honor of my high school Latin teacher, Dr. Dilly. I think she would be
pleased that I remember her much more fondly than she would have believed at
the time (of any of us: she made us work "too hard").
............................................................................
Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.
-William Butler Yeats, poet, dramatist, essayist, Nobel laureate (1865-1939)
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