Useless fact of the day...

[Darfion]

The longest word in the English language is...

Ornicopytheobibliopsychocrystarroscioaerogenethliometeoroaustrohiero
anthropoichthyopyrosiderochpnomyaolectryoophiobotanopegohydrorhab
docrithoaleuroalphitohalomolybdoclerobeloaxinocoscinodactyliogeolitho
pessopsephocatoptrotephraoneirochiroonychodactyloarithstichooxogelo
scogastrogyrocerobletonooenoscapulinaniac.

There's 310 letters in there.

You'll have to do a Google for its meaning cos i can't be arsed

 

[LaFoto]

Nothing there, not for me, that is, only another type on another online forum who is telling "his" forumites what the longest word in the English language is. Let the web scrawlers find this and you get two results when googling this expression.

 

[Rob]

That word is made up and is a pseudo-medical term only anyway. The longest real word in the Oxford English Dictionary is Supercalifragilistiexpialidocious. The longest word in some other dictionaries is Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, but it is a ficticious word, invented solely to be the longest in the dictionary, much like that one.

I'm such a spoilsport huh.

Rob

 

[LaFoto]

You are


No-no-no-no-nooooo. Not really! I know you!

 

[Darfion]

That word is made up and is a pseudo-medical term only anyway. The longest real word in the Oxford English Dictionary is Supercalifragilistiexpialidocious. The longest word in some other dictionaries is Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, but it is a ficticious word, invented solely to be the longest in the dictionary, much like that one.

I'm such a spoilsport huh.

Rob

Just found this extract:

Medieval scribes used this word to refer to "A deluded human who practices divination of forecasting by means of phenomena, interpretation of acts, or other manifestations related to the following animate or inanimate objects and appearances: birds, oracles, Bible, ghosts, crystal gazing, shadows, air appearances, birth stars, meteors, winds, sacrificial appearances, entrails of humans and fishes, fire, red-hot irons, altar smoke, mice, grain picking by rooster, snakes, herbs, fountains, water, wands, dough, meal, barley, salt, lead, dice, arrows, hatchet balance, sieve, ring suspension, random dots, precious stones, pebbles, pebble heaps, mirrors, ash writing, dreams, palmistry, nail rays, finger rings, numbers, book passages, name letterings, laughing manners, ventriloquism, circle walking, wax, susceptibility to hidden springs, wine, and shoulder blades.

 

[Rob]

How about this extract regarding it: :greenpbl:

Stop being such a gullible ponce.

That so-called "word" is just a bunch of butchered Anglo-Latin and Anglo-Greek transitionals that are bolted together in a way that makes no sense.

A cursory glance reveals the following:

ORNI - pertaining to winged flight
BIBLIO - pertaining to books
PSYCHO - of the mind
METERO - of or pertaining to the atmosphere
AUSTRO - Austro-Asiatic, from the Latin auster (south)
HIERO - sacred or holy, pertaining to hierology, from the Greek hieros (holy)
ANTHROPO - pertaining to anthropometry, humanity
ICHTHYO - of fish, from the Greek ikhthuo (fish)
PYRO - pertaining to fire


...and so on.

Also I note a couple of duplications in there.

It seems to me that it's no co-incidence that every reference to it is just someone on a forum going "look at this long word". :lmao:

I shall await the next update to my OED with bated breath!

Rob

 

[Darfion]

Phffffffff!

 

[markc]

And even supercalifragilisticexpialidocious was made up for Mary Poppins. I wonder what the longest real word really is. Though it could be argued that it is a real word now, as language is dynamic. That's something that the rule ****s seem to forget.

 

['Daniel']

There are longer words than supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Like that lung disease miners used to get in England.

 

[markc]

There are longer words than supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Like that lung disease miners used to get in England.

That's the Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis mentioned above.

I found this page: http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words11.html

 

['Daniel']

The longest word in some other dictionaries is Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, but it is a ficticious word, invented solely to be the longest in the dictionary, much like that one.

Oh ok, it was jsut that comment that threw me.

 

[Lensmeister]

The original and honestly longest Oxford English Dictionary which is the official word is a sesquipedalian and that word is

antidisestablishmentarianism

That's my two penneth !