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    What is the longest adjective?

    Question #33287. Asked by chui. (May 08 03 10:06 PM)


    Friar Tuck

    		In Thomas Love Peacock's satirical novel Headlong Hall (1816) there appear two high-flown nonce words (one-off coinages) which describe the human body by stringing together adjectives describing its various tissues. The first is based on Greek words, and the second on the Latin equivalents; they are osteosarchaematosplanchnochondroneuromuelous (44 letters) and osseocarnisanguineoviscericartilaginonervomedullary (51 letters), which translate roughly as 'of bone, flesh, blood, organs, gristle, nerve, and marrow'.

    Some editions of the Guinness Book of Records mention praetertranssubstantiationalistically (37 letters), used in Mark McShane's Untimely Ripped (1963), and aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminosocupreovitriolic (52 letters), attributed to Dr Edward Strother (1675-1737).
    http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwords/longestword

    May 08 03, 10:36 PM
    hummerh3

    		I'll take a guess:
    propseudocontraneoantidisestablishmentarianalistic. That's 50 letters.

    Mar 18 04, 6:42 PM

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