Almost a word game here but I do have a serious question. Allow me to explain... Take the word Establish - To make firm or stable (amongst many other meanings) Append it with -ment to make Establishment - A settled arrangement (such as a government) Append it with -arian to make Establishmentarian - Someone in favour of a particular establishment. Pre-fix it with Dis- to make Disestablishmentarian - Someone in favour of the removal of an establishment Can you see where I'm going with this? Pre-fix this with Anti- and you have Antidisestablishmentarian - Someone opposed to the removal of an establishment. Append with a good old -ism and you have what is often erroneously taught as the longest word in the english language (yeah I know!!) My question is, just how much further could this go? Antidisestablishmentarianismisationalistically? Is that feasible as a word? I take it to mean "With regards to the process of the growth of antidisestablishmentarianism" but may well have my suffixes muddled! Is there a limit? Can any of you think of longer concatenations? Perhaps to words like Sesquipedalian or Paraskevidekatriaphobia or floccinaucinihilipilification?
Well, I am not exactly intelligent when it comes to spelling and grammar and basically any english word rules, however if that word does work then it is certainly a mouthful! 8[]
Antidisestablishmentarian. You've got a double negative "anti-dis-". Wouldnt pro-establishmentarian mean the same? As for the -arian on the end, its probably unnecessary in most sentences. ie John is pro-establishment VS John is a pro-establishmentarian. As to "a limit"? I'd say its probably about 2 or 3 before it becomes too unwieldy to understand. Once you have to stop and mentally work through the word, its probably too much (in context with the intended audience). At that point, simply spelling it out in plain English would be better. ie Antidisestablishmentarianismisationalistically = not a feasible word. You might as well just say "With regards to the process of the growth of the pro-establishment crowd" (or whatever it means). But as a word game, it works
I take your point Mr 55 but antidisestablishmentarianism is an actual word despite the inclusion of what appears to be a double negative. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antidisestablishmentarianism)
I would say it stops there because from that point, most new suffixes would replace the one that is there. Additionally, they would have to give the word some sort of meaning. ex1. Antidisestablishmentarianism (n.)-->Antidisestablishmentarianistic(adj.-being of the characteristics of and antidisestablishmentarian)-->Antidisestablishmentarianistically (adv. done in the style of an...) ex2. Antidisestablishmentarianismisational has no meaning... Antidisestablishmentarianisational also has no meaning... 'isation' is a suffix that applies to verbs that typically end in '-ize' (The suffixes after that merely change the form to adj. or adv.)... Antidisestablishmentarianisation has meaning (v. the act of becoming an Antidisestablishmentarian.)
Words can stretch until they mean something else entirely. Take: "Roflcopter". That's stretching my imagination. Above post is legendary. meta-
Interesting wiki article, I didn't know any of that. I think it highlights that context/intended audience is important. In this case, the "disestablishment" was not a general word but had a very specific meaning of the separation of church and state (specifically in this context it is the political movement of the 1860s in Britain). So I can see how its not really a double negative. The simpler pro-establishment loses the intended meaning. anti-disestablishment really means "opposed to the separation of church and state". I can hazard a guess that readers back in 1860 could understand the variants on the disestablishment word fairly easily (and were probably more patient as well). It's still hovering around the 2 to 3 limit, ie: anti-disestablishment-arian-ism I don't mind the odd bit of etymology, so thankyou good sir!
