We do have genuine (if rather obviously deliberate) examples in our files of antidisestablishmentarianism (28 letters) and floccinaucinihilipilification (29 letters), which are listed in some of our larger dictionaries. Other words (mainly technical ones) recorded in the complete Oxford English Dictionary include:
otorhinolaryngological (22 letters), immunoelectrophoretically (25 letters), psychophysicotherapeutics (25 letters), thyroparathyroidectomized (25 letters), pneumoencephalographically (26 letters), radioimmunoelectrophoresis (26 letters), psychoneuroendocrinological (27 letters) hepaticocholangiogastrostomy (28 letters), spectrophotofluorometrically (28 letters), pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism (30 letters). Most of the words which are given as 'the longest word' are merely inventions, and when they occur it is almost always as examples of long words, rather than as genuine examples of use. For example, the medieval Latin word honorificabilitudinitas (honourableness) was listed by some old dictionaries in the English form honorificabilitudinity (22 letters), but it has never really been in use. The longest word currently listed in Oxford dictionaries is rather of this kind: it is the supposed lung-disease pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45 letters). In Voltaire's Candide, Pangloss is supposed to have given lectures on metaphysico-theologo-cosmonigology (34 letters). In Thomas Love Peacock's satirical novel Headlong Hall (1816) there appear two high-flown nonce words (one-off coinages) which describe the human body by stringing together adjectives describing its various tissues. The first is based on Greek words, and the second on the Latin equivalents; they are osteosarchaematosplanchnochondroneuromuelous (44 letters) and osseocarnisanguineoviscericartilaginonervomedullary (51 letters), which translate roughly as 'of bone, flesh, blood, organs, gristle, nerve, and marrow'. Some editions of the Guinness Book of Records mention praetertranssubstantiationalistically (37 letters), used in Mark McShane's Untimely Ripped (1963), and aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminosocupreovitriolic (52 letters), attributed to Dr Edward Strother (1675-1737). This kind of verbal game originates, so far as records attest, with the ancient Greek comic playwright Aristophanes, inventor of Cloud-Cuckoo-Land (Nephelokokkygia). The formal names of chemical compounds are almost unlimited in length (for example, aminoheptafluorocyclotetraphosphonitrile, 40 letters), but longer ones tend to be sprinkled with numerals, Roman and Greek letters, and other arcane symbols. Dictionary writers tend to regard such names as 'verbal formulae', rather than as English words. ----------------------- DISCLAIMER: The information in this e-mail and any attachments is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressee or addressees. If you are not an intended recipient, please delete the message and any attachments and notify the sender of misdelivery. Any use or disclosure of the contents of either is unauthorised and may be unlawful. All liability for viruses is excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law. Any views expressed in this message are those of the individual sender, except where the sender states them, with requisite authority, to be those of the specific TIMES GROUP company. Get your world in your inbox! Mail, widgets, documents, spreadsheets, organizer and much more with your Sifymail WIYI id! Log on to http://www.sify.com ********** DISCLAIMER ********** Information contained and transmitted by this E-MAIL is proprietary to Sify Limited and is intended for use only by the individual or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential or exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If this is a forwarded message, the content of this E-MAIL may not have been sent with the authority of the Company. If you are not the intended recipient, an agent of the intended recipient or a person responsible for delivering the information to the named recipient, you are notified that any use, distribution, transmission, printing, copying or dissemination of this information in any way or in any manner is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please delete this mail & notify us immediately at [email protected] --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ ___________________________________________________________________ Welcome to Maa Vee Maa Kaa Nanbargal valai Kuzhu (Friendship Group)! This group is purely of the Youth, by the Youth and for the Youth. Utilize this group to post your views & messages. ___________________________________________________________________ To post to this Maa Vee Maa Kaa group, send your emails to [email protected] Regards, Owner, Maa Vee Maa Kaa. -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
