Floccinaucinihilipilification
I believe that I could justifiably depict this Christmas holiday as epic. That's right...EPIC (that was for those of you who think I overuse this, the epitome of all words, haha)!! Between the abundance of skating, gingerbread, an amazing Martini Mingle, Laser Tag (2nd last place baby!!), hanging out with my awesome friends and family, realizing how awesome I really am at hockey, and a road trip to Canmore for New Years, I think this was possibly one of the best trips home ever (kind of like how my grocery store in Victoria is the best grocery store EVER, haha)!!
I learned some stuff too...for instance, that I was wrong for thinking that the longest word in the dictionary is, in fact, not "antidisestablishmentarianism". This is a common mistake made by many. Thanks to Reid, I now know that the longest non-technical word in the English language is "floccinaucinihilipilification"...29 letters of pure genius!! It only took me about a week to learn how to say!! It is my new favourite word. It sounds funny...maybe that's why I like it. So, I finished packing, and decided I should google the word. It took me a while to actually figure out how to spell it, but once I did, BAM, I found a plethora of information!! So here are some links to explore in case you love this word as much as I do...
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/floccinaucinihilipilification
http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-flo2.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/newsradio/txt/s1469179.htm
The last link makes an interesting point...there is actually another word in the Oxford English Dictionary that is actually longer than "floccinaucinihilipilification"...it is "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" with 45 letters. However I don't think it comes even close to the collossal ;) awesomeness of "floccinaucinihilipilification". Besides, it's the name of a lung disease, and is therefore far too technical to be included in the running for the longest non-technical word in the English language.
In other news, Ice Age 2 is awesome...some may say it is a children's movie...but I like to think I am youthful and full of life (except when I come off my sugar high and start to fall asleep) and am therefore allowed to enjoy animated movies in which a mammoth hangs itself upside down on a tree by its tail...and appreciate the homeliness of the sloth with a lisp. You might even say that this movie is epic...OK OK, I'll stop!
Well, tomorrow I head back to the island for another month and a half before my next trip home...I plan to keep my readers informed and entertained throughout my time in the windy city...hopefully I won't be hit by any falling trees, though it would be a pretty good story to tell on my blog.
My next update...maybe tomorrow, or soon thereafter. The topic, you ask?? I think it shall be, "Is my new roommate a douche??"
Yup, that sounds like a good topic...
8 Comments:
Jacqui's New Roommate
Wait, "windy city"? Isn't that Chicago?
8:42 a.m.
Johnny,
That was by far the best response I could have gotten for my "Jacqui's New Roomate" theme!! EPIC!!
10:07 a.m.
What can I say, I'm a literalist. Here's hoping he is neither a literal douche, nor a figurative douche.
11:19 a.m.
Windy city is LA. Lethbridge, Alberta. Of course THE windy city is the city by the lake, Chicago.
Jacqui, as a fan of EPIC myself, I must agree that you are in the habit of overusing the word. Epic loses its epicness when it is overused. I suggest you come up with a secondary catch phrase for uses when the situation is slightly less than Epic.
Finally, I stick by "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" as the longest word in the dictionary. Is it in the dictionary? Yes, the Oxford, my favourite. Is it the longest word in the dictionary? Yes. Therefore, because it is in the dictionary, and is the longest word in the dictionary, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is the longest word in the dictionary.
If you can find a flaw in that logic, I'm pretty sure the Universe will collapse.
11:50 a.m.
Kevin, I'm pretty sure I found a flaw in your logic, but for fear of causing the universe to collapse, I'll say it was flawless.
And here's your new word to use for less-than-epic situations: mehpic.
You're welcome.
1:43 p.m.
Solid post, and I'll defend floccinaucinihilipilification being the longest non-technical word in the english dictionary. It wasn't until the second edition of the OED that pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
was included. As it is a word used to describe a condition from inhaling volcanic ash, it is considered technical. Opening the technical door leads us to the world of chemistry, where the protein known as "Titin" holds the record at 189,819 characters.
So by saying non-technical word (which Jacqui does), floccinaucinihilipilification teakes the win!
2:33 p.m.
I'll give you non-technical. Hell, even "English Language".
But, "the longest word in the dictionary" is still "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis".
4:03 p.m.
Agreed. Moving on...is he a douche?
4:44 p.m.
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