In the 1970s, Isaac Hayes recorded a tune called "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic", which was based on an expression coined by his boss at Stax Records, Al Bell. I'm not sure exactly what it means (though I recognize terms related to "hyperbole", "syllable" and "sequence" in it), but he certainly made it sound funky, especially when his female backup singers sang the word out.
I'll be curious to see, Andrew, just how many of your readers knew of the "antidis" word in your title! I must have first heard it at around 10 (which would've put it at 1965), and from Mr. Wordsmith himself: My dad! He would constantly regale my bro (barely a year older) and I with spoonerisms, jokes, and just sitcom-like quips constantly, keeping the two of us in stitches on a daily basis!
He'd use canned "snow" to spray "NOEL" on our front picture window during Christmas (so it could be seen from the street), knowing full well (and we'd never let him down!) we'd ask him, "Dad, why did you write "LEON" on the window?" My pre-adolescent bro once called him at his downtown high-rise office, and asked what he was doing. "Oh, just watching a knifing on the corner," he blithely replied. Dark? Oh, yeah, but, we didn't stop laughing for hours, if not days!
I can't recall if he gave us a definition for our word o' the day, but we must've asked. I also don't recall having to spend that much time remembering it....my love of writing I got from Mom....words, word usage, and wordplay? Dad. Even if Dad told us what it meant, I'm sure we didn't/couldn't understand it (or care)!
Fun stuff, Andrew....and, thanks. Always good to remember Dad and his humor! He actually died in 2010....on New Years Day.
What a cool way to remember your dad! Was "antidis" something that was somewhat commonly said? Check out J. E. Moyer's comment here if you get a sec too. There might be another interesting thread to unravel.
My bro and I only ever heard the word in our house....from Dad. I never heard it outside our house. I don't recall feeling a need to "show it off," either....or, if I did, not that much. I was a fairly quiet kid, and upon entrance into junior high (around 1967 or so), became completely self-conscious, introverted, and began retreating to my room, and, like a '90s kid and his Nintendo, began spending my days, thru 1973 and high school graduation, after school, from 4-9pm, listening to records, and ingesting liner notes, and all the rock mags of the day! Substack is now reaping the benefits of all that "cramming"!! You're welcome!🎶😁👍I'll check out the Moyer comment!
I love it, man. We have so much in common. I surely did enjoy Nintendo by the end of the 80s, but I also loved those records, and listened to at least four hours of music every single night. <3
Nice to know I wasn't the only brat as a kid. And I didn't have the excuse of being an only child. The longest word I could think to suggest for the weekly spelling bee in class was "sesquicentennial." Very scary! (And that goat's staring at me. How rude!)
Fellow Word Nerd here (who also liked to show off as a child), and this was one of my favorites. I liked to impress people by telling them I could spell the longest word.
Oh, the things we think are impressive when we're kids! I imagined a lot of important mental feats I could perform in order to show everyone how smart I was. I certainly also loved the actual puzzle/challenge of figuring things out, but I felt it was super important that people KNOW THIS about me.
I learned it from a physician who found out that I was interested in biology and medicine. I don’t remember how the conversation walked its way into that particular word, but I’ll never forget the impression it made on me!
I think I'd remember that, too. For me, I found the other big word and just ran with it! It's not like I used it in sentences, though, other than to tell people it was the longest word in common use.
Of course, we learned that one in school. But I didn't really grok its meaning until I endeavored to study the US Constitution - which forbids the establishment of religion; i.e., establishmentarianism.
So, the disestablishmentarians wanted to go the way America went: do away with established religion. I'm guessing that this raised the hackles of the religious zealots, who then became "anti" all that.
Good callout, Ken. I did NOT learn the word in school! But this is surely a big part of why the word remained in common usage during the 19th century, both in the US and in England, where the C of E debate was still very lively.
"Antidisestablishmentarianism" was a sophisticated way for Nixon supporters or other conservatives to mock anti-war demonstrators. The term could be seen as a way to ridicule the protestors by framing them as disruptors of the established order, suggesting that their opposition to the war was akin to challenging long-standing institutions and norms. I recall being able to write it out on a blackboard in middle school.
As a nerd before the term nerd was used, I used to read the dictionary for fun- this post brought back my memory of first hearing this word and practicing its pronunciation though I confess I didn’t take time to dissect its parts and lear its meaning. I just liked to throw it out there sometimes and feel it roll off my clever tongue! Haha- thanks for this post, and the Poppins’ word reference also- quite nostalgic. 🥰🥰🙏🏼
I certainly didn't go down the etymological rabbit hole with words when I was young. I think I didn't really understand that you could figure things out if you were patient enough, or maybe I wasn't patient enough yet to be persistent in the pursuit of things like word origins.
Mary Poppins was such a huge influence on the theater scene of the 80s, too, although I only dabbled in theater in grade school.
I didn’t mean that you post too much at all! I meant that I subscribe to too many and I have to triage my reads - always watch out for yours among a few other “must read” :)
Oh yeah, I get it! I have had the same dilemma myself. It took me some time to pare my daily reading list down, and it is always in flux. Only so much can find its way into this noggin of mine!
So if you're a follower of Antidisestablishmentarianism, you're basically pro-Empire. You're the Sith, essentially. Good to know!
Also, here's a 2-year-old video of me laughing at Nathan's attempts to say "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"
https://photos.app.goo.gl/yqniorrZfQ4zLJnw9
Unlike you, I never turned humble and am now a horrible gloating parent instead.
Nathan got really close on that third try!
"Soup case of bad butter badder bad galoshes"
He saw me rewatching the video and wanted to try again. Damn, two years make a huge difference, he nails it now: https://photos.app.goo.gl/6XsmPYQpyoEpRyau7
Nice! The next logical step: antidisestablishmentarianism.
We'll have to wait until he's 11!
In the 1970s, Isaac Hayes recorded a tune called "Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic", which was based on an expression coined by his boss at Stax Records, Al Bell. I'm not sure exactly what it means (though I recognize terms related to "hyperbole", "syllable" and "sequence" in it), but he certainly made it sound funky, especially when his female backup singers sang the word out.
I am currently listening to this song on Pandora.
I'll be curious to see, Andrew, just how many of your readers knew of the "antidis" word in your title! I must have first heard it at around 10 (which would've put it at 1965), and from Mr. Wordsmith himself: My dad! He would constantly regale my bro (barely a year older) and I with spoonerisms, jokes, and just sitcom-like quips constantly, keeping the two of us in stitches on a daily basis!
He'd use canned "snow" to spray "NOEL" on our front picture window during Christmas (so it could be seen from the street), knowing full well (and we'd never let him down!) we'd ask him, "Dad, why did you write "LEON" on the window?" My pre-adolescent bro once called him at his downtown high-rise office, and asked what he was doing. "Oh, just watching a knifing on the corner," he blithely replied. Dark? Oh, yeah, but, we didn't stop laughing for hours, if not days!
I can't recall if he gave us a definition for our word o' the day, but we must've asked. I also don't recall having to spend that much time remembering it....my love of writing I got from Mom....words, word usage, and wordplay? Dad. Even if Dad told us what it meant, I'm sure we didn't/couldn't understand it (or care)!
Fun stuff, Andrew....and, thanks. Always good to remember Dad and his humor! He actually died in 2010....on New Years Day.
What a cool way to remember your dad! Was "antidis" something that was somewhat commonly said? Check out J. E. Moyer's comment here if you get a sec too. There might be another interesting thread to unravel.
My bro and I only ever heard the word in our house....from Dad. I never heard it outside our house. I don't recall feeling a need to "show it off," either....or, if I did, not that much. I was a fairly quiet kid, and upon entrance into junior high (around 1967 or so), became completely self-conscious, introverted, and began retreating to my room, and, like a '90s kid and his Nintendo, began spending my days, thru 1973 and high school graduation, after school, from 4-9pm, listening to records, and ingesting liner notes, and all the rock mags of the day! Substack is now reaping the benefits of all that "cramming"!! You're welcome!🎶😁👍I'll check out the Moyer comment!
I love it, man. We have so much in common. I surely did enjoy Nintendo by the end of the 80s, but I also loved those records, and listened to at least four hours of music every single night. <3
Nice to know I wasn't the only brat as a kid. And I didn't have the excuse of being an only child. The longest word I could think to suggest for the weekly spelling bee in class was "sesquicentennial." Very scary! (And that goat's staring at me. How rude!)
Oh wow, "sesquicentennial" was somehow also in my young vocabulary due to a state park where I grew up called "Sesqui"!
Fellow Word Nerd here (who also liked to show off as a child), and this was one of my favorites. I liked to impress people by telling them I could spell the longest word.
Oh, the things we think are impressive when we're kids! I imagined a lot of important mental feats I could perform in order to show everyone how smart I was. I certainly also loved the actual puzzle/challenge of figuring things out, but I felt it was super important that people KNOW THIS about me.
Haha same!
I learned it from a physician who found out that I was interested in biology and medicine. I don’t remember how the conversation walked its way into that particular word, but I’ll never forget the impression it made on me!
I think I'd remember that, too. For me, I found the other big word and just ran with it! It's not like I used it in sentences, though, other than to tell people it was the longest word in common use.
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is a lung disease caused by breathing extremely fine silica dust
Being a science geek, my favorite word was Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, and it’s a very real thing!
I learned that one too, but couldn't ever remember the order of the mini-words! Someone else here threw that one out as their fave big word.
I was fond of the technical name for some kind of lung disease: pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
I remember that word! Although, I could never remember the order the way I could with some of the other silly big words.
Of course, we learned that one in school. But I didn't really grok its meaning until I endeavored to study the US Constitution - which forbids the establishment of religion; i.e., establishmentarianism.
So, the disestablishmentarians wanted to go the way America went: do away with established religion. I'm guessing that this raised the hackles of the religious zealots, who then became "anti" all that.
Good callout, Ken. I did NOT learn the word in school! But this is surely a big part of why the word remained in common usage during the 19th century, both in the US and in England, where the C of E debate was still very lively.
Same word when I was growing up excluding medical dictionaries, which can really be an ego booster for the budding diagnostician…
I too was a fan of long words when I was a smart ass kid!Arachibutyrophobia was my goto
Looks like someone threw up three Greek words and kind of threw them back together into one. Peanut butter!
"Antidisestablishmentarianism" was a sophisticated way for Nixon supporters or other conservatives to mock anti-war demonstrators. The term could be seen as a way to ridicule the protestors by framing them as disruptors of the established order, suggesting that their opposition to the war was akin to challenging long-standing institutions and norms. I recall being able to write it out on a blackboard in middle school.
Nice, thanks for sharing this memory! I suspect that's why it was still in use (albeit very rarely) by the time I encountered in in Guinness.
As a nerd before the term nerd was used, I used to read the dictionary for fun- this post brought back my memory of first hearing this word and practicing its pronunciation though I confess I didn’t take time to dissect its parts and lear its meaning. I just liked to throw it out there sometimes and feel it roll off my clever tongue! Haha- thanks for this post, and the Poppins’ word reference also- quite nostalgic. 🥰🥰🙏🏼
I certainly didn't go down the etymological rabbit hole with words when I was young. I think I didn't really understand that you could figure things out if you were patient enough, or maybe I wasn't patient enough yet to be persistent in the pursuit of things like word origins.
Mary Poppins was such a huge influence on the theater scene of the 80s, too, although I only dabbled in theater in grade school.
Loved it -always try to read your posts among the 3,281 that hit my inbox daily! :D
I promise to only have one on almost every one of those days.
I didn’t mean that you post too much at all! I meant that I subscribe to too many and I have to triage my reads - always watch out for yours among a few other “must read” :)
Oh yeah, I get it! I have had the same dilemma myself. It took me some time to pare my daily reading list down, and it is always in flux. Only so much can find its way into this noggin of mine!