h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

it's popularly believed that long words are dear to the hearts of nerds, however you wish to define them. I was going to sample long words in a number of languages including English, but I find that there's a website that does the heavy lifting for me:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_words

Nevertheless, I'm going to single out the German word Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän for two reasons:
1.it refers to a captain on the Danube comany steamship line, which makes me hear "Blue Danube" in my mind's ear
2. It has 42 letters, so it must be the answer to *something.*

There are, of course, some made-up words like "Supercalifragilistuicexpialidocious," a word that *proved* that Mary Poppins was a nerd. It's artificial, but dictionary.com lists it as a nonsense word that children can use to express approval.
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

I would rather not try to learn too many long English words, because I tend to get tendonitis when I use too many keystrokes. Long words have a *lot* of keystrokes, and they rarely seem to fit well in anyof the sentences I write.

Of the long words that I might feasibly use in a sentence, the one I can imagine most readily is phenomenonologically. It only has 20 letters (!!), but I'm kind of interested in phenomenology. It's a concept that developed around the time when existentialism was popular, and it has developed further into cognitive therapy, a favorite tool of modern psychiatrists and clinicians. Douglas Adams pays fond, satiric tribute to it in a scene where the emperor of the galaxy is visited by some grand poobahs on his little, isolated world. All he can be certain of is his cat. See, cats really are very important in the galaxy. Now, if they could be made less smug about it ,cross>.

Does anyone else have favorite long words that they are apt to use ona daily basis?

Not one I use on a daily basis but I do like the German "fussbodenschleifmaschinenverleih" (it's a shop where you can rent machines used for sanding wooden floors). I even have a picture of such a place and its 32 letters long sign over the door. And the windows.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

(llan-vire-pooll-guin-gill-go-ger-u-queern-drob-ooll-llandus-ilio-gogo-goch)

Two very good long words indeed .

You've just reminded that there's a lake with a very long name:
Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg

It's a lake in Webster, Mass. (known as Webster Lake for short). It has also often been spelled wrong (I wonder why! )

It's a Nipmuck name, and translates as "Englishmen at Manchaug at the fishing place at the boundary although" and was applied in the 19th century when White people built factories in the area.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5198455/Longest-place-name-in-US-spelt-wrongly.html

I hope that the spirits of the Nipmucks don't find out about this misspelling.

It is not a very long words but I like it:

Quasi-biennial-oscillation

and

Stratocumulus-stratiformis

Hi, Rosa

As I sit at my computer, I can look out the window and see Stratocumulus-stratiformis clouds.

Hello Paul, I have the same clouds too, gently floating in the blue sky.

Two hours later, most of the clouds are gone, and there's a lot of blue sky.

There are plenty of nerdy word which aren't ridiculously long. English is wonderful like that.

English is rich and diverse.

Yeah, small wonder

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle their pockets for new vocabulary."
[James Nicoll]

I don't mind if English borrows words, as long as it doesn't keep them so long it has to pay rent on them. .

This reminds me of the actress Ronni Ancona who on the tv show Q.I. claimed that all English speaking nations outside of Britain should bl**dy well make up their own languages or pay royalties to the Brits

Here's a line from "My Fair lady":

"There even are places where English completely disappears.
In America, they haven't used it for years."

For that matter, there are places in America where it's hard to decipher American English. I can't understand a word that Taylor Swift sings without listening several times.

You are not missing much with not understanding Taylor Swift's lyrics.

I pretty much figured that out already, but I'm glad to know others agree.

I am very fond of Star Trek technobabble with the following terminology:

Nanotechnology
Spatial-anomaly
Nanoprocessor
Microscopic-singularity
Space-time continuum
Chrono-kinetic surge
Isoneutronic pulse wave carrier
Anti-neutron field

I wish cosmologists, astronomers, theoretical physicists and quantum physicists would use technobabble as I love listening to it been spoken.

From my facebook page, this morning:

A few years back a friend and I were in a Walgreen's on an errand. We were discussing music. Taylor Swift was mentioned. I told friend I can't listen to her. She asked why because she's ok with Taylor's voice. Nope, voice is not the problem. It's the lyrics. Your were Romeo, I was Juliet and we will live happily ever after. Romeo and Juliet is not a happy ending there are more deaths than a Steven Moffett Doctor Who episode. At this point a lady walks into the aisle where we were. She looked up and said 'thank you. I hate that song for that very reason.'

I like Star trek technobabble too, Rosa. You left out dilithium.