Words are writers’ and readers’ best friends. Compared to vehicles, there are words as long as limousines and as short as the Peel P50. But most writers avoid the pretentiousness of sesquipedalianism.
Sesquipedalianism, what’s that? It’s OK. My tongue tripped and fell a couple of times trying to pronounce this one.
Sesquipedalianism is the practice of using long words. Most readers, including me, appreciate the practicality of using commonly used words.
To be honest, I’ve never used sesquipedalianism before. Wow, it has 9 consonants! Who wants to put such stress on the tongue, teeth, and roof of the mouth to enunciate it? When shorter words get the point across, why not save time, breath, and effort?
No doubt, there are times we may want to show off our word prowess. Plus, learning new words expands one’s vocabulary.
Case in point: when is the last time you said supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, read, or used it in print?
For fear of mis-spelling this long word, I copied and pasted it.
It’s not a word I can say two or three times in succession without bumbling the pronunciation. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious has got to be one of the longest words in the dictionary!
If you boil it down, wring it out, or let it sun-dry, simply put, the word means extraordinary, good, or wonderful.
Why use this Herculean word instead of extraordinary, good, or wonderful?
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious sounds different, right? It’s ornate and has the feel of distinction. It isn’t a word for the masses.
Some say it’s nonsensical or none-sense. I’ll say so!
Others say it’s precocious, especially for the little kids to use such a word. It’s fun! And it just glides off their agile tongues.
Kids love this word from the famous movie Mary Poppins. And to top things off, it’s the name of a song.
This heavyweight of a word has 34 letters which include seven i (s). But supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is a dwarf compared to the longest English word.
The longest word isn’t even in the dictionary because it’s several limousines long. Typed or written, the longest word is about 57 pages long? The word is the chemical name of a protein that’s found in the human body.
It’s a whopping 189,819 letters.
Most references say it takes over three hours to say this 189,819-letter word.
A more commonly used word but not without its only lengthy challenges is Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is the name of a lung disease. There are 45 letters in this word.
Whether short or long, some words are supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Sorry, I should have said some words are extraordinary!
Be safe.