Fun With Ridiculous Words

Some time in the life of most anyone who plays with words, whether for a living or for fun, certain types of words come to their attention.

I speak, of course, of the good supply of overly long and seldom or never-used words that nonetheless appear in the dictionary. The are fun to read, fun to play with, fun to roll off the tongue, and even fun to attempt using them in a sentence.

These words fall under the definition of "polysyllabic," itself a rather long word, meaning "having many syllables."

If I were a gambling type, I’d be willing to lay odds that the first such word most of us encounter is,

antidisestablishmentarianism

It means, according to Webster’s New Twentieth Century Dictionary, Unabridged Second Edition, (1973),

“Opposition to the disestablishment of a church or religious body; specifically strong opposition to the disestablishment of a State Church…”

It’s not a word I’ve ever heard anyone use except for the fun of saying it.

The first example is followed by a few other choice goofy, and pretty much useless words:

pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

This comes under medical diagnostic terminology. It is an obscure term ostensibly referring to a lung disease caused by silica dust, sometimes cited as one of the longest words in the English language.

floccinaucinihilipilification

(approximate pronunciation:flok-suh-naw-suh-nahy-hil-uh-pil-uh-fi-key-shuhn)

This is a really rare word, it's meaning is, the estimation of something as valueless. It is encountered mainly as an example of one of the longest words in the English language. It is also a deliberately coined word made up by university students trying to be funny. As such, its status as a real word is in dispute.

melcryptovestimentaphilia

Another medical or pseudo-medical term with the general meaning of "referring to preferences, sexual urges, or fantasies involving black female underwear "

sesquipedalian

Using, or tending to use very long words; long, polysllabic

At least, you now know more than you ever wanted to know about useless words that lurk in our already confusing-enough English language.

I hope you enjoyed this journey.