Information AboutAntidisestablishmentarianism |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT ANTIDISESTABLISHMENTARIANISM | |
| political theories | |
| anglicanism | |
| religion and politics | |
| church of england disestablishment | |
| separation of church and state | |
| SHOPPER'S DELIGHT | |
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The word ''antidisestablishmentarianism'', with 28 letters, is the longest accepted word in the is a nonsense word meaning fantastic. However, since it was taken from Mary Poppins , a fantasy novel for children, it is as yet considered to be a real "word." The claim that "antidisestablishmentarianism" is the longest word in the English language is actually quite arguable, since ''antidisestablishmentarianism'' is used seriously in academic and ecclesiastical writing about the Church of England when the concept arises, which it does occasionally (See e.g. Hastings and "Some notes on the Church of England and Establishment", below). However, since 1992 it has lost this title to Floccinaucinihilipilification in the Guinness Book Of Records . Antidisestablishmentarianism might still be the longest word not invented for the specific purpose of being a long word, however. (the word floccinaucinihilipilification was invented as a joke, and is an amalgamation of four Latin words). Presumably its creation invoked the irony of its length, and may have to do with the politics and commentary of the time period. Also, some criticise its validity on the basis that it has two prefixes ("anti-" and "dis"-) and three suffixes ("-ment", "-arian" and "-ism"), stating that it is not only possible to create a number of longer meaningful words by adding ever more prefixes, but that "antidisestablishmentarianism" is not a standalone word because of them. IN FICTION In the '' Honeymooners '' episode, '' The $99,000 Answer '', Alice asks Ralph to spell the word. Ralph says he'll spell it if she gives him $16,000 for spelling it. She tells him she'll give him twice the amount if he can say it. In the '''' episode, ''Nob and Nobility'', the title character tells Prince George that he shall return 'before you can say antidisestablismentarianism'. The Prince makes many attempts at saying it, eventually reducing to the level of saying ''anti-distinctly-minty''. LONGER WORDS
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