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Interesting Facts

Posted: Mon May 30, 2005 3:41 am
by New England Patriots
Lets get to know some cool and interesting facts here.  

The longest word in the english language is:
PNEUMONO­ULTRA­MICRO­SCOPIC­SILICO­VOLCANO­CONIOSIS

It Means: Lung Disease From the inhalation of volcanic dust.

Posted: Mon May 30, 2005 1:05 pm
by Jafar
Show me someone who can pronounce that, and I'll eat my hat! :p

Posted: Mon May 30, 2005 1:29 pm
by Gronagor
Looks pretty simple. Break up the word into meaningful words and it should be easy. Pneumo/ultra/microscopic/silico/volcano/coniosis.

Although I doubt whether that should be one word.

Posted: Mon May 30, 2005 2:58 pm
by GuJiaXian
Yeah, I knew about this word years and years ago (yes, I actually own several unabridged dictionaries--comes from having a college degree in English, and being married to someone who has a Master's in English).

Anyway, it's pronounced:
new-mono-ultra-micro-scopic-sili-co-volcano-coni-osis

My second favorite "long" English word is "floccinaucinihilipilification", which means "the estimation of something as worthless."

For the record, it's pronounced:
flokee-nokee-nili-pili-fi-cation

Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2005 1:09 am
by Ghost_Rider
Heck those aren't easy to say even after they're broken up like that.  Maybe if you say them very, VERY slowly.

Try saying them each three times quickly.   :eek

I know sometimes German words can be long, but I'm surprised to see such long words in the English language.

Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2005 3:28 am
by Klytos
Another totally unrelated interesting fact I discovered a couple of days ago.

Rugby League and Rugby Union were both played in France in the early part of the 20th century. By the 1930's League was the more popular of the two. When the German's invaded in WW2, the officials of Union cozied up to the occupiers and within a couple of years had League banned as a sport and all League club assets were handed over to the Union. This ban was lifted after the war but the assets were never returned and League couldn't include the word Rugby in it's name until 1985.