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Thursday, January 20, 2011

Second Longest word in the English Language

I encountered the word floccinaucinihilipilification recently and not knowing what it meant I looked it up (read Googled it). According to Wikiquote it is the second longest word in the English language. It means an estimation of something as worthless. I am willing to bet that it's a word that's never been used in anger or Scrabble because in my estimation it is probably worthless being at once unpronounceable and undeliverable in anything under light speed, further you would never have enough tiles for it in Scrabble. However, contrary to my views it has been used by people like Sir Walter Scott as far back as 1826 and Bill Clinton more recently. Neither really a reason for continuing to use it.


Following this line of inquiry I then decided to look for the longest word in English which per Wikipedia it is said to be  Antidisestablishmentarianism at 28 characters in length - note by count both have 28.

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