55 Comments
1447
How about the Bulgarian непротивоконституционствувателствувайте (neprotivokonstitucionstvuvatelstvuvayte) - do not act against the constitution?
- 1447
No. This is an artificial word indeed, but it was actually used as a newspaper article title and since then it turned into a legendary word. It is intentionally complicated more than is required or is usual. Just do a google search for it. I see 2340 matches ;)
The "hippopotomonstro-" part of that is sadly made up to make the word even more menacing. Sesquipedaliophobia is the real fear of long words, "sesquipedalio-" literally being latin for "one and a half foot".
naturwissenschaften- science in german. and that's not even the longest word.
Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesell-schaft is longer.
- 17
You're not familiar with "Mary Poppins" and "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," then?
Too funny. How about pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis...
- 394
I know this comment is three years old but if you're interested in Dutch I know another long word : Hottentottententententoonstellingsingangskaartje(y)
Hmmm. An entry ticket to an exhibition of tents of the Hottentot people? Right??
- 394
yes, indeed, it is a joke word and a tongue-twister, more info on wiktionary ( notice that some people made an entrance ticket of it : https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hottentottententententoonstelling
the longest word in the world is the chemical name for titan, it has 189819 letters and takes 3 hours to pronounce :)
- 1447
Well, surely not titan/titanium, whose chemical symbol is just Ti, because it is a simple chemical (an element), namely a metal. Titin (also connectin) on the other hand is a very complex organic chemical, namely a protein.
no that's a 1960's Belgian detective comic not a complex muscle protein.
I would expect someone would have made up a longer one by now, just to break the record, but if not, then I will do it: take the chemical name of titin and add "goobledigok" to the end. In my own language that I'm developing, this word means "puce" (the color).
Quite: LLanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochuchaf.
Yes - it's a place name in Wales, and it has a train station, so you can use it any sentence that involves places or stations :-) .
Sanskrit[edit] Sanskrit allows word compounding of arbitrary length. Nouns and verbs can be expressed in a sentence. The longest sentence ever used in Sanskrit literature is (in Devanagari):
निरन्तरान्धकारित-दिगन्तर-कन्दलदमन्द-सुधारस-बिन्दु-सान्द्रतर-घनाघन-वृन्द-सन्देहकर-स्यन्दमान-मकरन्द-बिन्दु-बन्धुरतर-माकन्द-तरु-कुल-तल्प-कल्प-मृदुल-सिकता-जाल-जटिल-मूल-तल-मरुवक-मिलदलघु-लघु-लय-कलित-रमणीय-पानीय-शालिका-बालिका-करार-विन्द-गलन्तिका-गलदेला-लवङ्ग-पाटल-घनसार-कस्तूरिकातिसौरभ-मेदुर-लघुतर-मधुर-शीतलतर-सलिलधारा-निराकरिष्णु-तदीय-विमल-विलोचन-मयूख-रेखापसारित-पिपासायास-पथिक-लोकान् In IAST transliteration:
nirantarāndhakārita-digantara-kandaladamanda-sudhārasa-bindu-sāndratara-ghanāghana-vṛnda-sandehakara-syandamāna-makaranda-bindu-bandhuratara-mākanda-taru-kula-talpa-kalpa-mṛdula-sikatā-jāla-jaṭila-mūla-tala-maruvaka-miladalaghu-laghu-laya-kalita-ramaṇīya-pānīya-śālikā-bālikā-karāra-vinda-galantikā-galadelā-lavaṅga-pāṭala-ghanasāra-kastūrikātisaurabha-medura-laghutara-madhura-śītalatara-saliladhārā-nirākariṣṇu-tadīya-vimala-vilocana-mayūkha-rekhāpasārita-pipāsāyāsa-pathika-lokān from the Varadāmbikā Pariṇaya Campū by Tirumalāmbā,[31] composed of 195 Sanskrit letters (428 letters in the roman transliteration, dashes excluded), thus making it the longest word ever to appear in worldwide literature.[32][33]
Each hyphen separates every individual word this word is composed of.
The approximate meaning of this word is:
"In it, the distress, caused by thirst, to travellers, was alleviated by clusters of rays of the bright eyes of the girls; the rays that were shaming the currents of light, sweet and cold water charged with the strong fragrance of cardamom, clove, saffron, camphor and musk and flowing out of the pitchers (held in) the lotus-like hands of maidens (seated in) the beautiful water-sheds, made of the thick roots of vetiver mixed with marjoram, (and built near) the foot, covered with heaps of couch-like soft sand, of the clusters of newly sprouting mango trees, which constantly darkened the intermediate space of the quarters, and which looked all the more charming on account of the trickling drops of the floral juice, which thus caused the delusion of a row of thick rainy clouds, densely filled with abundant nectar."
Got that from wikipedia.
I win.
I have a private theory that this place name, though refering to an actual village, on Anglesey, was actually just a pastiche Welsh place name, made up by the Welsh, purely to bamboozle the English.
@KunzGvs: Actually, you are sort of right here. http://www.llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.co.uk/history.php explains how it was a marketing ruse :-)
"He eats with us every week" is also a valid translation for this sentence.
- 873
every day - - - - every week - - - - -every month - -every year
giornalmente - settimanalmente - mensilmente - annualmente
Indeed, you are more likely to meet "each week" or "every week" in normal conversation. "Weekly" is a little more formal, e.g. in a document.
GG, Ahmed's comment is good English. I'd say it myself :-)
Duolingo has me choosing odd translation like the approved one here just to be safe. In "real life" I'd say "every week" and it's good to see comments on this.
It's a little formal: business meetings might be held on a weekly basis, but when having dinner with a friend it might be out of place.
