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发表于 26-11-2005 23:33:00|来自:新加坡
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<H2><FONT face=Arial color=#4d76b3><EM>Free yet accurate, keep reading on</EM></FONT> </H2>
<H2>Q. What is the longest word in the dictionary?</H2>
<H2>A. It depends . . . </H2>
<P>It might be <I>supercalifragilisticexpialidocious</I> (which appears in the <CITE><a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/bookstore/oed.html" target="_blank" ><FONT color=#0033ff>Oxford English Dictionary</FONT></A></CITE>), unless you want to count names of diseases (such as 'pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis', defined by the <CITE>OED</CITE> as "a factitious word alleged to mean 'a lung disease caused by the inhalation of very fine silica dust' but occurring chiefly as an instance of a very long word"), places (such as 'Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch', a village in Wales), chemical compounds (apparently there is one that is 1,913 letters long), and also a few words found only in Joyce's <CITE>Finnegans Wake</CITE>.</P>
<P>Other words famous for being sesquipedalian: </P>
<UL>
<LI>antidisestablishmentarianism ("opposition to the disestablishment of the Church of England")
<LI><a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/help/faq/language/f/floccinauci.html" target="_blank" ><FONT color=#0033ff>floccinaucinihilipilification</FONT></A>
<LI>honorificabilitudinitatibus (Which appears in Shakespeare's <CITE>Love's Labour's Lost</CITE>, and which has been cited as [dubious] evidence that Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare's plays) </LI></UL>
<P>Or perhaps <I>smiles</I> is the longest word — after all, there is a <I>mile</I> between the first letter and the last. </P> |
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