Antidisestablishmentarianism (word)

For the article discussing the meaning of the word, see Antidisestablishmentarianism.

The English word antidisestablishmentarianism (UK /ˌæntidɪsɪˌstæblɪʃmənˈtɛəriənɪzəm/ US /ˌæntaɪ-/ ) is notable for its unusual length of 28 letters and 12 syllables, and is one of the longest words in the English language. It has been cited as the longest word in the English language (excluding coined and technical terms), although some dictionaries do not recognize it because of its low usage in everyday lexicon.

Antidisestablishmentarianism is a political position that originated in 19th century Britain. The position opposed proposals at that time to remove the Anglican Church's status as the established church of England, Ireland, and Wales, but not in Scotland, which had and still has its own separate national church.

The word became known in the public realm in the United States via a popular television show in the 1950s, The $64,000 Question, when a young contestant correctly spelled it to win.

Recognition

There is varied recognition of antidisestablishmentarianism among major English dictionaries. Merriam Webster does not recognize the word because it is practically unused in the modern era, although they do include disestablishmentarianism and antiestablishmentarianism.

The American Heritage, Chambers, and Oxford English similarly exclude antidisestablishmentarianism, but keep smaller variations.

Dictionaries that do include the word are the Cambridge Dictionary, Collins English, and Dictionary.com.

The longest word found in a major dictionary is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, but this is a technical term that was coined specifically to be the longest word.

Construction of the word

The word construction is as follows (succeeded by the number of letters in the word):

establish (9)

to set up, put in place, or institute (originally from the Latin stare, to stand)

dis-establish (12)

to end the established status of a body, in particular a church, given such status by law, such as the Church of England

disestablish-ment (16)

the separation of church and state (specifically, the goal of the political movement of the 1860s in Britain)

disestablishment-arian (21)

one who subscribes to said movement

anti-disestablishmentarian (25)

one who opposes said movement

antidisestablishmentarian-ism (28)

the movement or ideology that opposes disestablishment

The word construction could be lengthened further in many ways, for example:

antidisestablishmentarian-istically (34)

doing something with antidisestablishmentarian intentions.

In popular culture

A slightly longer but less commonly accepted variant can be found in the Duke Ellington song "You're Just an Old Antidisestablishmentarianismist".

In The Honeymooners episode, The $99,000 Answer, Alice Kramden asks Ralph Kramden 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.

Rapper Eminem used the word in his song "Almost Famous" off the album Recovery.

In May 2023, it was found that including this word in one's Steam profile would cause various issues, such as the inability to view the profile's page. The issue was found to be caused by Akamai, the company that hosts Steam's profile pages. A few days later, it was resolved.

In Blackadder the Third, the titular character tells Prince George that "....I will return before you can say 'antidisestablishmentarianism'." A title card then informs the viewer that two days have passed and we see Prince George still struggling to pronounce the word as Blackadder returns from his journey.

See also

• Longest word in English
• Nominalizations in English

References

• Antidisestablishmentarianism in the Online Etymology Dictionary