A poet once created a word 170 letters long in a play, using an enterprising technique that has been copied by a major fast food chain. Who was the poet, what was the word and why is it unusual?

lanfranco

That would have been Aristophanes, who created a word for a dish by stringing together its ingredients. (The play was "The Assemblywomen.") The technique was copied in the famous "Twoallbeefpattiesspecialsauce," etc. I don't have the actual Greek word for you. http://www.answers.com/topic/longest-word-in-english Apr 29 05, 9:31 AM

Stew54

You were too fast for me Ianfranco. I do have the link to the word (the 170 Greek letters converts to an awe inspiring 192 characters in English), but the url unhelpfully includes the whole word and would throw out the format of this page so I won't paste it. However you can get the etymology here: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ and the name of the word is: Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatosilphio paraomelitokatakechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryon optekephalliokigklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon Apr 29 05, 9:38 AM

MaggieG 5

And there's a section in "The Wind in the Willows" where Rat describes the contents of his picnic basket in the same way - "There's cold chicken inside it," replied the Rat briefly; "coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrolls cresssandwichespottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesodawater" etc. Apr 29 05, 10:47 AM

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