What is the longest word in your language, and what does it mean in English?
I love the German word verbesserungsbedürftig, meaning in need of improvement. I'm not German, but thought this was a cracking word.
Like with German, we can make arbitrarily long compound words in Dutch (for example, “kindercarnavalsoptochtvoorbereidingswerkzaamhedencomitéleden”), but if we limit it to words that are in the dictionary, “arbeidsongeschiktheidsverzekering“ (disability insurance) is one of the longest words that’s also commonly used.
Reminds me of a Hottentottententententoonstelling
Anticonstitutionnellement
In a manner that is against the constitution.
Antidisestablishmentarianism
opposition to the disestablishment of the Church of England
Also bonus Welsh town name:
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
Literally translated, the long form of the name means: "[The] church of [St.] Mary (Llanfair) [of the] pool (pwll) of the white hazels (gwyn gyll) near to lit. "over against"] (go ger) the fierce whirlpool (y chwyrn drobwll) [and] the church of [St.] Tysilio (Llantysilio) of the red cave (gogo[f] goch)"
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
A weatherman saying it went viral ~9 years ago, if anyone wants to hear the pronunciation:
The longest officially used German word was:
Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz
(63 letters)
Translation:
"Beef labeling monitoring delegation law"
This was the name of a law in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. It referred to the delegation of tasks related to monitoring beef labeling, especially relevant during the BSE (mad cow disease) crisis. The law was abolished in 2013.
But German allows theoretically endless compound words. A classic (but not officially used) example is:
Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft
(80 letters)
Translation:
"Association of subordinate officials of the main building for electrical services of the Danube steamship company"
This is a joke word created to illustrate how German compounds work. It's not used in real life, but it’s popular in linguistic discussions and trivia.
Dutch can do the same. You can just keep slapping words together. It never ends.
It's funny how the translation almost always goes back to front
I remember hearing a story of a UN or EU real-time translator working German to English suddenly stopping, the English listeners looking a bit confused, and after another 15 or 20 seconds of hearing the German speaker continue with still no translation, just heard a whispered "the verb, dammit, the verb!" through their headsets.
Not the longest ones but the first that came to mind:
In French, one of the longest words is "anticonstitutionnellement", which means unconstitutionally. It's long but not something you'd use in daily conversation.
For Japanese, it's trickier because the language doesn’t really form long standalone words like German does. But if we count kanji compounds, something like "超電磁砲" (ちょうでんじほう, chōdenjihō), meaning railgun, is a cool one. Of course, technical or bureaucratic terms can get way longer, but they’re more like phrases than words.
We'll have lots of English speakers here given the language the question was asked in, so I'll do Gàidhlig (Scottish Gaelic) instead: dìochuimhneachadh, at 17 letters. It means "forgetting", and it is pronounced /ˈd̥ʲĩə̃xənəxəɣ/. No, I can't say it smoothly.
Gàidhlig isn't one of those languages that can compound words like Finnish or German, this one is just a consequence of a few different things. Firstly, the language's spelling rules result in a lot of letters that do impart information but aren't directly pronounced. Consonants have two forms depending on which of two sets of vowels they are next to, so any consonant or consonant cluster must always have vowels from the same set on either side. For example, the "i" in the "imhne" bit in the middle is basically only there to match the "e" at the end, since u and e aren't in the same set of vowels and we need to know which version of the consonants between them to use. Every h is a modifier on the consonant preceding it as well. Second, the root of it is "un-remember", so it's already a shorter word with a prefix. Third, we're using the verbal noun version, so it's "the act of forgetting" rather than present-tense as in "currently forgetting something"
There are probably longer words in the language, but I don't know it very well yet and this was the longest one I could find on a word list. I think there's actually a version of dìochuimhnich that includes a suffix marking it as being a conditional first person plural doing the forgetting, so "we would forget", but I don't understand how that part of the language works. If I was to say that at the moment, I would use two words to do it, so I don't feel like I can give it as an answer here
In Finnish language you can compose compound words freely, so the question is a bit odd. Your imagination is the limit.
Google says the longest cited Finnish word is "lentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikkoaliupseerioppilas," meaning "airplane jet turbine engine auxiliary mechanic non-commissioned officer student." Can you make one longer?
I'm guessing this means official titles, names or otherwise somehow constricted words.
I can easily extend it by adding few words: "Antiikkilentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikkoaliupseerioppilasehdokas" meaning "antique airplane jet turbine engine auxiliary mechanic non-commissioned officer student candidate".
In Estonian, we traditionally consider the word kuulilennuteetunneliluuk - the hatch of the tunnel for the bullet's flight path, to be the longest, but as with German, arbitrarily large words are possible.
In English it's usually "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU--..." (trimmed due to character limit per post)
Meaning varies with context, but it's most often an assessment of current events.
Heksakosioiheksekontaheksafobia
phobia to numbers 666
linklink
In English, I understand it to be pneumonoultramicropicsilicovolcaniconiosis, although I may have misspelled it from memory. It's a medical condition resulting from inhaling fine particles of silica.
The longest non-medical word (because c'mon, that's Latin) is antidisestablishmentarianism. I think it is basically being pro-establishment (government) because of the double negative in the word.
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcaniconiosis is English, but it is a medical word. The roots of it are Greek and Latin, like much of English. Are you aware of the etymology of antidisestablishmentarianism?
I think it also has something to do with believing that the monarch should or shouldn't be head of the Church of England. But yeah, pro-establishment, definitely.
konstantynopolitańczykowianeczka - a young girl from Constantinople.
This isn't real word though, just an (admittedly old) meme.
Longest Polish word that is in official dictionary is "pięćdziesięciogroszówka" (50 groszy coin, half of 1 PLN) - 23 letters
Of course it's not that simple because in Polish the numerals can be joined and can be much longer, for example "dziewięćsetdziewięćdziesięciodziewięcioipółletni" (999,5 years old) - 48 letters.
And if somebondy wants to talk about their really distant ancestors (nobody do though, at least not in such manner), we could pile up the "pra" (grand) prefix to infinity creating prapraprapraprapra[...]dziadek.
Supercalifragilistichespiralidoso
Lithuanian: "Nebeprisivaizdotinklaraštininkaujantiesiems"
Meaning: To those who are no longer satiated by the amount of vlogs they create
Here are the longest words in Esperanto. I'm not fluent though, still learning.
The Chinese language doesn't quite work that way as it is based almost solely on distinct characters...
I guess you can just keep compounding characters together. Just as a quick example, "[the] People's Republic of China" is a 7-character word in Chinese with no breaks... it can go much, much longer as necessary, but I'm not sure if that counts, since it's essentially just three words joined together ("China", "People", "Republic")
Otherwise, the closest thing might be some of the longer Chinese idioms ("Chengyu"), although most Chengyus are only 4 characters long
Learning a language where you need to know how to write thousands of differently squiggles (with almost no rules whatsoever) to even communicate is difficult in its own way though
No, you have it the other way round. You say 'biang', and write its character for five minutes
Theoretically you can make infinitely long words in German.
Anglophonenwortkompositafaszinationsbelustigungsbauchschmerzmittelrezeptdruckerhersteller. Manufacturer of printers for prescriptions for painkillers for belly pain caused by amusement at anglophones' fascination with word compounds.
Yeah, Wikipedia tells me the longest word that was actually in use is Grundstücksverkehrsgenehmigungszuständigkeitsübertragungsverordnung. It was a decree from 2003 until 2007.
Basically:
traffic"trade" in this context.So, it decreed that the responsibility of approving
traffic ontrade of private plots of land should be transferred (to a different government body).While technically correct, the word
Verkehrhere does not translate totraffic, but rather belongs to the compoundVerkehrsgenehmigungwhich is roughly atrade permitfor selling a plot of land or using it as a collateral on a loan.