For some reason, the other kids at my school thought you were smart if you could spell. And the ultra-hardest word was ‘antidisestablishmentarianism’. It was my ticket to fame, and all I had to do was spell one word.
My dad, for his part, once read somewhere that people with bigger vocabularies got paid more, and so encouraged me to learn lots of words so I’d make more money. A classic case of mistaking correlation and causation, I’m afraid. But it did start me building my empire of language podcasting and world domination, so maybe Dad was onto something there. Anyway, he thought the longest word was ‘pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis’. It’s either not the longest, or not a word, but what is? All will be answered in this week’s podcast.
There’s also something about the longest word in German, which Ben liked.
The offer stands: If you think you can pronounce any of the words in this podcast better than I can, make a video and post it!
One-off show: Here
Subscribe via iTunes: Here
Show notes: Here
Show tunes:
‘Schaufensterpuppen’ by Kraftwerk
from the album Trans-Europa Express
‘Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik’ by Outkast
from the album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik
11 June 2013 at 3:41 pm
It was antidisestablishmentarianism for me too. I was always proud of the knowledge it had 28 letters.
For my kids it was hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.
My son was proud of his ability to spell that one at 11 years old.