Longest Worm

[mfgoode]

Originally Posted by kelman66

I have the 1986 (old I know) Guinness Book of World records and it quotes the plural, 47 letter version from Webster's Third International Dictionary is the plural of a lung disease contracted by some miners. PneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosISes

Also, it lists the longest regularly formed English word is
praetertranssubstantiationalistically (37 letters)
used by Mark McShane in his novel Untimely Ripped, published in 1963.

Interesting and thanks for the clarification To avoid the disease dont try to pronounce it as it will make one run out of breath!!
Mally

[robert44444uk]

When I was a kid, we learned this antidisestabishmentarianism word as part of a joke:

First Kid: "antidisestabishmentarianism" - spell it!

Second Kid: "eye tee"

Geddit? Aren't kids' jokes great!

Regards

Robert Smith

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by robert44444uk

First Kid: "antidisestabishmentarianism" - spell it!

Second Kid: "eye tee"

Oh, what sad times are these when passing ruffians can say 'it' at will to old ladies. There is a pestilence upon this land. Nothing is sacred. Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.

(Apologies to Monty Python)

[davar55]

I could be more specific, but let me remain general:

What's the longest word or words ever used?

On this forum? In English or a natural language or computerese?
In literature or in speech? In a poem or book? On the internet?

I offer what I once thought was the longest: antidisestablishmentarianism.

Cool word, but way short.

Can we do better?

[science_man_88]

Originally Posted by davar55

I could be more specific, but let me remain general:

What's the longest word or words ever used?

On this forum? In English or a natural language or computerese?
In literature or in speech? In a poem or book? On the internet?

I offer what I once thought was the longest: antidisestablishmentarianism.

Cool word, but way short.

Can we do better?

hippopotomonstrosequipedaliaphobia I think is technically the longest in english without chemical names last I checked.

[davar55]

Originally Posted by science_man_88

hippopotomonstrosequipedaliaphobia I think is technically the longest in english without chemical names last I checked.

Do you mean by number of letters or syllables? What about chemical names?

[science_man_88]

Originally Posted by davar55

Do you mean by number of letters or syllables? What about chemical names?

though I don't have my record books handy I think it's even been talked about on here where there's chemical names that are 1000's of characters long.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_word_in_English

[Batalov]

Spelling out aminoacid sequences as chemical substances indeed is a legit way to make a long word.
But even outside of proteins, organic chemistry can give us good technical terms, like
(2S,4R)-N-[(1R,2R)-2-hydroxy-1-[(2R,3R,4S,5R,6R)-3,4,5-trihydroxy-6-methylsulfanyl-tetrahydropyran-2-yl]propyl]-1-methyl-4-propyl-pyrrolidine-2-carboxamide hydrate hydrochloride

[kladner]

Isn't German noted for long, strung-together words?

I remember a cartoon, XKCD, as I remember, which had an inordinately long Finnish word in it. I can't find it, though.

[petrw1]

smiles

It's a mile between the 2 S's.

[only_human]

Originally Posted by petrw1

smiles

It's a mile between the 2 S's.

One sign language quip is to place two closed fists ('s' letters) next to the ears as a sign for Sears.