I’m also excluding place names and their derivatives (Liverpudlian, Mancunian, etc.), but I may as well mention, en passant, that Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg, is the longest US place name. It has been attached to a lake in Webster, MA. The name is a Nipmuk (American Indian) name and denotes a local agreement between the Nipmuks and neighboring tribes; the Narraganssett, Pequot and Mohegan. It means “You fish on the left side, I’ll fish on the right side, no one fishes in the middle.” Presumably that agreement was brokered by an ancestor of Dr. Henry Kissinger.
I’ve traveled much of North Wales and I never once encountered a whirlpool or a red cave for that matter. However I suppose I might have, if only I’d visited the village with the UK’s longest name; Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. It means “St. Mary’s Church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool of Llantysilio of the Red Cave.”
So, proceeeding on:
6. Entredentolignumologist. This is one of those words where you feel you just might be able to work the meaning out. But you can’t and you won’t. It refers someone who collects toothpick boxes. The remarkable thing here is that, surf as I might, I can’t find a word for someone who collects toothpicks and yet there’s a word for someone who collects the boxes they come in?
7 & 8. Aichmorhabdophobia & Bathysiderodromophobia. The first of these words presents a similar conundrum to entredentolignumologist. Aichmorhabdophobia refers to the fear of being beaten with a pointed stick. However, there is no corresponding word for the fear of being beaten with a blunt stick, or a thin stick or any other kind of stick. It’s a word with no relatives, a kind of orphaned stick phobia.
Inventing new phobias is a good way to concoct new long words and when I came across bathysiderodromophobia, which is an overlong word for the fear of subways, it occurred to me to cross-breed this with aichmorhabdophobia, to give aichmorhabdobathysiderodromophobia. I could then pretend that this was the fear of being beaten with a pointed stick in a subway. That would have been an impressive 34 letters, but hippopotomonstrosesquippediliophobia would still be longer, so I resisted the temptation
9. Gynotikolobomassophile. This describes someone who likes to nibble on a woman’s earlobe. I guess it’s a stage that all us men have to go through, a few years after our voices break. There is no equivalent word to describe someone who likes to nibble on the male earlobe, because no woman has ever had such an urge. (Call me ignorant, but I have no idea how any of this pans out in the gay community.)
10. Aequeosalinocalcalinosetaceoaluminosocupreovitriolic. And if you’ve visited Bath then you’ll know exactly what I mean, because that’s an excellent description of the spa waters at Bath, using 52 letters (one for every week of the year). The word was coined by Edward Strother to describe the spa waters at Bath and it is frequently used by visitors to that wonderful spa town. “Darling, shall we take the waters this morning.” “Oh yes dear, they’re so aequeosalinocalcalinosetaceoaluminosocupreovitriolic.” This word, incidentally, may qualify as the longest in the English language.
Or it may not.
If supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, concocted by P L Travers qualifies for the long word contest, then surely words concocted by Aristophanes qualify too. In which case; lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatosilphioparaomelitokatakechymenokich
lepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptekephalliokigklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon, with 189 letters, wins the contest. It would also be a good word to use as a tie breaker in a spelling bee.
This gargantuan word means: a ghoulash composed of all the leftovers from the meals of the last two weeks.
Admittedly this is very very long for a word, but actually, it’s reasonably concise as a recipe.
10 Curse Words You Don’t Know
10 Insulting Words You Don’t Know
10 Nonsense Words You Don’t Know
10 Words You Don’t Know With Limericks
10 Units of Measure You Don’t Know
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~ Thomas Jefferson
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