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== Creations of long words == === Coinages === In his play ''[[Assemblywomen]]'' (''Ecclesiazousae''), the [[ancient Greece|ancient Greek]] comedic playwright [[Aristophanes]] created a word of 171 letters (183 in the [[transliteration]] below), which describes a [[recipe|dish]] by stringing together its ingredients: <div style="overflow:auto"> :[[Lopadotemachoselachogaleokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatosilphiokarabomelitokatakechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptekephalliokigklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon]]. </div> [[Henry Carey (writer)|Henry Carey]]'s farce ''[[Chrononhotonthologos]]'' (1743) holds the opening line: "Aldiborontiphoscophornio! Where left you Chrononhotonthologos?" [[Thomas Love Peacock]] put these creations into the mouth of the phrenologist Mr. Cranium in his 1816 book ''[[Headlong Hall]]'': ''osteosarchaematosplanchnochondroneuromuelous'' (44 characters) and ''osseocarnisanguineoviscericartilaginonervomedullary'' (51 characters). [[James Joyce]] made up nine 100-letter words plus one 101-letter word in his novel ''[[Finnegans Wake]]'', the most famous of which is Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk. Appearing on the first page, it allegedly represents the symbolic thunderclap associated with the fall of [[Adam and Eve]]. As it appears nowhere else except in reference to this passage, it is generally not accepted as a real word. [[Sylvia Plath]] made mention of it in her semi-autobiographical novel ''[[The Bell Jar]]'', when the protagonist was reading ''Finnegans Wake''. "[[Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious]]", the 34-letter title of a song from the movie ''[[Mary Poppins (film)|Mary Poppins]]'', does appear in several dictionaries, but only as a [[proper noun]] defined in reference to the song title. The attributed meaning is "a word that you say when you don't know what to say." The idea and invention of the word is credited to songwriters [[Robert and Richard Sherman]]. === Agglutinative constructions === The English language permits the legitimate extension of existing words to serve new purposes by the addition of prefixes and suffixes. This is sometimes referred to as [[agglutinative language|agglutinative]] construction. This process can create arbitrarily long words: for example, the prefixes ''pseudo'' (false, spurious) and ''anti'' (against, opposed to) can be added as many times as desired. More familiarly, the addition of numerous "great"s to a relative, such as "great-great-great-great-grandparent", can produce words of arbitrary length. In [[musical notation]], an 8192nd note may be called a ''{{not a typo|semihemidemisemihemidemisemihemidemisemiquaver}}''. ''[[Antidisestablishmentarianism (word)|Antidisestablishmentarianism]]'' is the longest common example of a word formed by [[agglutinative]] construction. === Technical terms === [[File:Parastratiosphecomyia stratiosphecomyioides Brunetti (lectotype) - ZooKeys-238-001-g002-2.jpg|thumb|120px|right|''[[Parastratiosphecomyia stratiosphecomyioides|Para{{shy}}stratio{{shy}}sphe{{shy}}com{{shy}}yia stratio{{shy}}sphe{{shy}}com{{shy}}yioi{{shy}}des]]'']] A number of scientific naming schemes can be used to generate arbitrarily long words. The [[IUPAC]] nomenclature for organic chemical compounds is open-ended, giving rise to the 189,819-letter chemical name ''Methionyl{{shy}}threonyl{{nowrap|threonyl{{hsp}}.{{hsp}}.{{hsp}}.{{hsp}}iso}}{{shy}}leucine'' for the protein also known as [[titin]], which is involved in striated muscle formation. In nature, DNA molecules can be much bigger than protein molecules and therefore potentially be referred to with much longer chemical names. For example, the wheat chromosome 3B contains almost 1 billion base pairs,<ref>Paux et al. (2008) Science, Vol. 322 (5898) 101–104. A Physical Map of the 1-Gigabase Bread Wheat Chromosome 3B {{cite journal |url=https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.1161847 |doi=10.1126/science.1161847 |access-date=2012-12-01 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150903222353/http://www.sciencemag.org/content/322/5898/101.full |archive-date=2015-09-03 |title=A Physical Map of the 1-Gigabase Bread Wheat Chromosome 3B |year=2008 |last1=Paux |first1=Etienne |last2=Sourdille |first2=Pierre |last3=Salse |first3=Jérôme |last4=Saintenac |first4=Cyrille |last5=Choulet |first5=Frédéric |last6=Leroy |first6=Philippe |last7=Korol |first7=Abraham |last8=Michalak |first8=Monika |last9=Kianian |first9=Shahryar |last10=Spielmeyer |first10=Wolfgang |last11=Lagudah |first11=Evans |last12=Somers |first12=Daryl |last13=Kilian |first13=Andrzej |last14=Alaux |first14=Michael |last15=Vautrin |first15=Sonia |last16=Bergès |first16=Hélène |last17=Eversole |first17=Kellye |last18=Appels |first18=Rudi |last19=Safar |first19=Jan |last20=Simkova |first20=Hana |last21=Dolezel |first21=Jaroslav |last22=Bernard |first22=Michel |last23=Feuillet |first23=Catherine |journal=Science |volume=322 |issue=5898 |pages=101–104 |pmid=18832645 |bibcode=2008Sci...322..101P |s2cid=27686615 }}</ref> so the sequence of one of its strands, if written out in full like ''Adenilyl{{shy}}adenilyl{{shy}}guanilyl{{shy}}cystidyl{{nowrap|thymidyl{{hsp}}.{{hsp}}.{{hsp}}.{{hsp}}}}'', would be about 8{{spaces}}billion letters long. The longest published word, ''Acetyl{{shy}}seryl{{shy}}tyrosyl{{shy}}seryl{{nowrap|iso{{hsp}}.{{hsp}}.{{hsp}}.{{hsp}}serine}}'', referring to the coat protein of a certain strain of [[tobacco mosaic virus]] ({{uniprot|P03575}}), is 1,185 letters long, and appeared in the [[American Chemical Society]]'s [[Chemical Abstracts Service]] in 1964 and 1966.<ref>''Chemical Abstracts Formula Index, Jan.–June 1964'', Page 967F; ''Chemical Abstracts 7th Coll. Formulas, C<sub>23</sub>H<sub>32</sub>-Z, 56–65, 1962–1966'', Page 6717F</ref> In 1965, the Chemical Abstracts Service overhauled its naming system and started discouraging excessively long names. In 2011, a dictionary broke this record with a 1909-letter word describing the ''trpA'' protein ({{Uniprot|P0A877}}).<ref name=P0A877/> [[John Horton Conway]] and [[Landon Curt Noll]] developed an open-ended system for naming powers of 10, in which one ''{{Not a typo|sexmillia{{shy}}quingen{{shy}}sexagin{{shy}}tillion}}'', coming from the Latin name for 6560, is the name for 10<sup>3(6560+1)</sup> = 10<sup>19683</sup>. Under the [[Long and short scales|long number scale]], it would be 10<sup>6(6560)</sup> = 10<sup>39360</sup>.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Noll |first1=Landon Curt |title=How high can you count? |url=http://www.isthe.com/chongo/tech/math/number/howhigh.html |website=www.isthe.com |access-date=2 September 2024 |date=8 July 2022}}</ref> ''{{visible anchor|Gammara{{shy}}canthus{{shy}}kyto{{shy}}dermo{{shy}}gammarus lori{{shy}}cato{{shy}}baica{{shy}}lensis}}'' is sometimes cited as the longest [[Binomial nomenclature|binomial name]]—it is a kind of [[amphipod]]. However, this name, proposed by [[Benedykt Dybowski|B. Dybowski]], was invalidated by the [[International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature]] in 1929 after being petitioned by [[Mary J. Rathbun]] to take up the case.<ref>{{citation|mode=cs1|title=Opinions Rendered by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature: Opinions 105 to 114|chapter=Opinion 105. Dybowski's (1926) Names of Crustacea Suppressed|series=Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections|date=1929|volume=73|issue=6|pages=1–3|hdl-access=free|hdl=10088/23619|id={{BHL page|8911139}}}}</ref> ''[[Myxococcus llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochensis]]'' is the longest accepted binomial name for an organism. It is a bacterium found in soil collected at [[Llanfairpwllgwyngyll|Llan{{shy}}fair{{shy}}pwll{{shy}}gwyn{{shy}}gyll{{shy}}]] (discussed below). ''[[Parastratiosphecomyia stratiosphecomyioides]]'' is the longest accepted binomial name for any animal, or any organism visible with the naked eye. It is a species of [[Stratiomyidae|soldier fly]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com/long428.html|title=World's longest name of an animal. Parastratiosphecomyia stratiosphecomyioides Stratiomyid Fly Soldier Fly.|author=rjk|work=thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111117001007/http://www.thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com/long428.html|archive-date=2011-11-17|access-date=2011-12-17}}</ref> The genus name ''[[Parapropalaehoplophorus]]'' (a fossil [[glyptodont]], an extinct family of mammals related to [[armadillo]]s) is two letters longer, but does not contain a similarly long species name. ''{{visible anchor|Aequeo{{shy}}salino{{shy}}calcalino{{shy}}ceraceo{{shy}}aluminoso{{shy}}cupreo{{shy}}vitriolic}}'', at 52 letters, describing the [[Hot spring|spa]] waters at [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], England, is attributed to Dr. Edward Strother (1675–1737).<ref>cited in some editions of the [[Guinness Book of Records]] as the longest word in English, see [https://web.archive.org/web/20011006121814/http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwords/longestword Askoxford.com] on the longest English word</ref> The word is composed of the following elements: * Aequeo: equal (Latin, aequo<ref>[http://perseus.uchicago.edu/hopper/morph.jsp?l=aequo&la=la]{{dead link|date=August 2010}}</ref>) * Salino: containing salt (Latin, salinus) * Calcalino: calcium (Latin, calx) * Ceraceo: waxy (Latin, ''cera'') * Aluminoso: [[alumina]] (Latin) * Cupreo: from "copper" * Vitriolic: resembling [[vitriol]]
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