Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Best Word Ever!

In Honor of this being my last Honor's Blog Posting I found the most absolutely fabulous word:
Honorificabilitudinitatibus 

which is pronounced as /anɛrɛɪfɪkɛˈbɪlɪtjuɪnætɪbɛs/.

Shakespeare used this word in his play "Love's Labour's Lost"

“O, they have lived long on the alms-basket of words. I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not so long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier swallowed than a flap-dragon.” 

Shakespear did not create the word, it first appears — in the Latin form honōrificābilitūdo in the 1187 and then takes in the Italian form honōrificābilis in the late 1300's. Both words mean honorable. 

Shakespeare is not the only late great to use this little gem, James Joyce used it in his novel "Ulysses" 

"Like John o'Gaunt his name is dear to him, as dear as the coat and crest he toadied for, on a bend sable a spear or steeled argent, honorificabilitudinitatibus, dearer than his glory of greatest shakescene in the country."

More recently the U.S. News & World Report, in 1993, used the original form of the word when addressing a debate going on in the world of Scrabble:

"Honorificabilitudinity and the requirements of Scrabble fans dictated that the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary's makers be open-minded enough to include dweeb (a boringly conventional person), droob (an unprepossessing or contemptible person, esp. a man), and droog (a member of a gang: a young ruffian)."


By far the greatest fact about Honorificabilitudinitatibus is that it is the longest word that alternates constants and vowels from beginning to end. 

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