Longest Word

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AuthorTopic: Longest Word
Apprentice
Member # 5604
Profile #0
What's the longest word you know? Mine is-

ACETYL SERYL TYROSYL SERYL ISO LEUCYL THREONYL SERYL PROLYL SERYL GLUTAMINYL PHENYL ALANYL VALYL PHENYL ALANYL­LEUCYL SERYL SERYL VALYL TRYPTOPHYL ALANYL ASPARTYL PROLYL ISOLEUCYL GLUTAMYL LEUCYL LEUCYL ASPARAGINYL VALYL­CYSTEINYL THREONYL SERYL SERYL LEUCYL GLYCYL ASPARAGINYL GLUTAMINYL PHENYL ALANYL GLUTAMINYL THREONYL­GLUTAMINYL GLUTAMINYL ALANYL ARGINYL THREONYL THREONYL GLUTAMINYL VALYL GLUTAMINYL GLUTAMINYL PHENYL ALANYL­SERYL GLUTAMINYL VALYL TRYPTOPHYL LYSYL PROLYL PHENYL ALANYL PROLYL GLUTAMINYL SERYL THREONYL VALYL ARGINYL­PHENYL ALANYL PROLYL GLYCYL ASPARTYL VALYL TYROSYL LYSYL VALYL TYROSYL ARGINYL TYROSYL ASPARAGINYL ALANYL VALYL­LEUCYL ASPARTYL PROLYL LEUCYL ISOLEUCYL THREONYL ALANYL LEUCYL LEUCYL GLYCYL THREONYL PHENYL ALANYL ASPARTYL­THREONYL ARGINYL ASPARAGINYL ARGINYL ISOLEUCYL ISOLEUCYL GLUTAMYL VALYL GLUTAMYL ASPARAGINYL GLUTAMINYL­GLUTAMINYL SERYL PROLYL THREONYL THREONYL ALANYL GLUTAMYL THREONYL LEUCYL ASPARTYL ALANYL THREONYL ARGINYL­ARGINYL VALYL ASPARTYL ASPARTYL ALANYL THREONYL VALYL ALANYL ISOLEUCYL ARGINYL SERYL ALANYL ASPARAGINYL­ISOLEUCYL ASPARAGINYL LEUCYL VALYL ASPARAGINYL GLUTAMYL LEUCYL VALYL ARGINYL GLYCYL THREONYL GLYCYL LEUCYL­TYROSYL ASPARAGINYL GLUTAMINYL ASPARAGINYL THREONYL PHENYL ALANYL GLUTAMYL SERYL METHIONYL SERYL GLYCYL­LEUCYL VALYL TRYPTOPHYL THREONYL SERYL ALANYL PROLYL ALANYL SERINE
Its a Tobbaco Virus! :eek:

And do you know that the real name for Bangkok is-

Krungthepmahanakornamornratanako-
sinmahintarayutthayamahadilokpho-
pnopparatrajathaniburiromudomraja-
niwesmahasatharnamornphimarnavata-
rnsathitsakkattiyavisanukamprasit.

But thats not the cool thing. Thai's can say the name right off their head!

EDIT: Line breaks inserted for browser sanity.

[ Monday, December 19, 2005 01:46: Message edited by: Thuryl ]
Posts: 32 | Registered: Friday, March 18 2005 08:00
...b10010b...
Member # 869
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Just so you know, coming up with ridiculously long names for organic molecules is fairly trivial. The name for one strand of DNA taken from any given organism would be even longer if anyone were insane enough to write it out in full. This is why molecular biologists like to use abbreviations instead. :P

And technically, the "word" you typed isn't the name of a virus, it's the name of the protein coat of a virus.

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The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure!
Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Infiltrator
Member # 4248
Profile #2
The longest word I've actually had to use in everyday life is atomiabsorptioelektrospektrofotometrianalysaattori. And there's no way in hell I will translate that monster to english.

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Posts: 617 | Registered: Tuesday, April 13 2004 07:00
...b10010b...
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"Atomic absorption spectrophotometer analysis", I'm assuming.

Fun fact: the atomic absorption spectrophotometer was invented in Australia.

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The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure!
Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #4
What is more incredible is that there is actually any part of any organism short enough to express in a word like that, even if it is just the protein code of a virus.

Talk about typing out the sourcecode of Windows.

A lot like a virus, in fact. o_O

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Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
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A series of protein isn't a word, and the full name of Bangkok also isn't a word. It's a series of words describing the city. The capital of the USA isn't Washingtonthedistrictofcolumbia even when you translate the words into another language.

—Alorael, who will contribute the longest palindrome he has ever seen used without intentional use of a palindrome for a palindrome's sake: deified.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Shaper
Member # 3442
Profile Homepage #6
I was once told the longest "real" word (i.e not a noun, proper or not, or a series of despcriptive words) was " antidisestablishmentarianism.

Although I wouldn't like to place any amount of money on that being right.

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Posts: 2864 | Registered: Monday, September 8 2003 07:00
Master
Member # 4614
Profile Homepage #7
You're also forgetting supercalifragilisticexpealidocious.

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-ben4808
Posts: 3360 | Registered: Friday, June 25 2004 07:00
Shaper
Member # 32
Profile #8
As for real words, he's forgetting floccipaucinihilipilification, or its close relative floccinaucinihilipilification.

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Lt. Sullust
Cogito Ergo Sum
Polaris
Posts: 2462 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
Shaper
Member # 3442
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quote:
Originally written by Lt. Sullust:

As for real words, he's forgetting floccipaucinihilipilification, or its close relative floccinaucinihilipilification.
I never professed to know. I only offered a possible answer. And is that really real? 'Cos it looks awfully... *runs away*

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Posts: 2864 | Registered: Monday, September 8 2003 07:00
Apprentice
Member # 2096
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Osseocarnisanguineoviscericartilaginonervomedullary, maybe? (from Headlong Hall)

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Posts: 38 | Registered: Wednesday, October 16 2002 07:00
Infiltrator
Member # 6136
Profile #11
In spanish the longest and non-insane word is:
Anticonstitucionalisimamente
I heard it once in a tv show when i was 4 years old and i never forgot...
Posts: 446 | Registered: Friday, July 22 2005 07:00
Infiltrator
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Everyone is forgetting hepaticocholangiocholecystenterostomies
Posts: 587 | Registered: Tuesday, April 1 2003 08:00
Infiltrator
Member # 4826
Profile #13
What about "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis?"
It's a lung disease caused by inhaling very fine silica.

[ Monday, December 19, 2005 14:17: Message edited by: Fire Shards ]

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Posts: 458 | Registered: Friday, August 6 2004 07:00
Lifecrafter
Member # 6388
Profile #14
quote:
Originally written by Lt. Sullust:

As for real words, he's forgetting floccipaucinihilipilification, or its close relative floccinaucinihilipilification.
This is a made-up word with dubious Latin roots used to describe nothing in particular, whose only particular linguistic function seems to be showing up in longest-word lists.

As opposed to antidisetc., which has a historical purpose (the doctrine of opposition to the Enlightenment-era move to disestablish the Church of England, distinct from 'establishmentarianism' in that establishing the Church would be redundant), floccietc. is simply a bunch of Latin words, each meaning 'nothing' or as close to it as possible, strung together by a group of 19th-century college students as something of a joke. It has no more validity than would exist were you or I to do the same thing.

The more you know.

[ Monday, December 19, 2005 14:17: Message edited by: Belisarius ]
Posts: 794 | Registered: Tuesday, October 11 2005 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #15
We've established that medicine is a good source for absurdly long words, as tryptophan synthetase A protein is even longer than the virus protein given above. I still don't exactly think it's a word. Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is another example of a fabricated word. It was put into the OED by collusion between an OED editor and people who wanted a new longest word.

Shakespeare used "honorificabilitudinitatibus," in Love's Labor Lost but he used it solely as a very long word. That's also cited as evidence that Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare's plays.

—Alorael, prefers to count words that aren't formed by judicious use of prefixes and suffixes. Antidisestablishmentarianism has been used meaningfully, which is more than can be said for most of the other examples, but why not antidisestablishmentarianismical? Or postantidisestablishmentarianismistically?
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Guardian
Member # 2238
Profile Homepage #16
There's a rather long word on the "ingredients" sector of your shampoo body. Yes yours, everyone.

After seeing these, however, I'm not sure it's as long as I once thought.

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Posts: 1582 | Registered: Wednesday, November 13 2002 08:00
Apprentice
Member # 5604
Profile #17
Antidisestablishmentarianism is weird. Logically it is the same as establishmentarianism because anti and dis are negative and 2 negatives make a positive.
Posts: 32 | Registered: Friday, March 18 2005 08:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 1546
Profile Homepage #18
quote:
Originally written by Will wily Wyrmkin wait willingly?:

—Alorael, who will contribute the longest palindrome he has ever seen used without intentional use of a palindrome for a palindrome's sake: deified.
same number of letters; Glenelg - the main beachside central suburb in Adelaide.

Antidis-, despite its illogical double negative, at the very least WAS a word as per the history described. Whether or not it can be considered a "real" word now is a moot point; it was a word used then, and is thusly used now in a historical context.

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Shaper
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As Belisarius said, antidisestablishmentarianism and establishmentarianism are not the same. Establishmentarianism means the state of being in favor of establishing the church, which already existed, so would therefore be redundant. Antidisestablishmentarianism, on the other hand, means the state of being against the dismantlement of the church, and does not in any way imply a desire to establish a new church. Note the difference.

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Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
...b10010b...
Member # 869
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quote:
Originally written by kuc:

quote:
Originally written by Will wily Wyrmkin wait willingly?:

—Alorael, who will contribute the longest palindrome he has ever seen used without intentional use of a palindrome for a palindrome's sake: deified.
same number of letters; Glenelg - the main beachside central suburb in Adelaide.

Or "racecar".

By the way, "disestablishment" didn't mean "dismantling the church". It just meant separating it from the state (which still hasn't happened, by the way; Queen Elizabeth II is officially the head of the Church of England).

[ Monday, December 19, 2005 20:36: Message edited by: Thuryl ]

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The Empire Always Loses: This Time For Sure!
Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Lifecrafter
Member # 34
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The Humuhumunukunukuapua'a is a kind of Hawaiian fish, the fish known as being smaller than its name. But that actually doesn't look very long.

In German, Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitaenskajuetenklinenputzergehilf.
I think it means "the captain of a steamboat on the Danube River", with some other stuff thrown in.

EDIT: Turns out I didn't need to toss in hyphens after all.

[ Monday, December 19, 2005 21:26: Message edited by: Robert the Fourth ]

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Posts: 702 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 4239
Profile #22
I think this is the first longest-word conversation I've ever seen where people threw in Latin and protein names. Congrats on a dubious accomplishment.
Having said that, I like disestablishmentarianism the most, despite the fact that OS X's spellcheck doesn't seem to like it. Disestablishmentarianism, as others have said, was a word used in a meaningful way for some period of time, is entirely native English, and doesn't rely on academic semi-English. Plus its meaning can't really be conveyed without the pre/post-fixes, so I consider them 'legitimate.' :)

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Posts: 322 | Registered: Monday, April 12 2004 07:00
Warrior
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Profile #23
quote:
Glenelg - the main beachside central suburb in Adelaide.
Glenelg is also a small town in Western Scotland. It is the UK's only palindromic placename as far as I know; perhaps Australia's too?

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Infiltrator
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Technically German doesn't have a longest word. Modifiers are prefixed, and you can keep adding them if you wish. Numbers as well are said as one word, so if you keep taking bigger numbers you'll get longer words. The example given is one usually cited to demonstrate the absurdly long (relative to English) words in German.

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