Editor. Proofreader. Wordsmith. Fact-Checker. Researcher.
adjective | [fan’ee-fyoo-gal]
Hating endings; of someone who tries to avoid or prolong the final moment of a story, relationship, or some other journey … Oh, Never Mind.
fini-s: end
+ fug-a: flight
+ -al
Quotation
1883 A. Tollemache in Jrnl. Educ. 1 Sept. “In modern as well as in ancient times, the finifugal tendencyis apparent.”
Mark Forsyth’s 11 Weird Words/Phrases You Should Be Using
adjective | ses·qui·pe·da·lian \ˌses-kwə-pə-ˈdāl-yən\
mid 17th century: from Latin.
Horace, the Roman poet known for his satire, was merely being gently ironic when he cautioned young poets against using “sesquipedalia verba”-“words a foot and a half long”-in his book Ars poetica, a collection of maxims about writing. But in the 17th century, English literary critics decided the word sesquipedalian could be very useful for lambasting writers using unnecessarily long words.
Latin sesquipedalis, literally, a foot and a half long
from sesqui- “half as much again”
+ ped-, pes “foot”
Words that Rhyme with Sesquipedalian: Episcopalian, tatterdemalion, Australian, bacchanalian.
A sesquiquadrate is an 135-degree angle.
A sesquicentennial is a period of 150 years.
A sesquinona in music, is an interval having the ratio or 9:10—that is, a lesser major second.
Editor’s Note:
This is the follow up to last week’s Word Wednesday, where I mentioned pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis beat out floccinaucinihilipilification for the longest word in the dictionary.
noun | pneu·mo·no·ul·tra·mi·cro·scop·ic·sil·i·co·vol·ca·no·co·ni·o·sis \ˈn(y)ü-mə-(ˌ)nō-ˌəl-trə-ˌmī-krə-ˈskäp-ik-ˈsil-i-(ˌ)kō-väl-ˈkā-nō-ˌkō-nē-ˈō-səs\
(NOO-muh-noh-UL-truh-MY-kruh-SKOP-ik-SIL -i-koh-vol-KAY-no-KOH-nee-O-sis, nyoo-)
A lung disease caused by inhaling fine particles of silica.
The story goes that this word was invented in 1935 by Everett M. Smith, president of the National Puzzlers’ League, at its annual meeting. The word figured in the headline for an article published by the New York Herald Tribune on February 23, 1935, titled “Puzzlers Open 103d Session Here by Recognizing 45-Letter Word”:
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis succeeded electrophotomicrographically as the longest word in the English language recognized by the National Puzzlers’ League at the opening session of the organization’s 103rd semi-annual meeting held yesterday at the Hotel New Yorker. The puzzlers explained that the forty-five-letter word is the name of a special form of silicosis caused by ultra-microscopic particles of silica volcanic dust…
Your Latin Lesson:
From New Latin, from Greek
pneumono- (lung) +
Latin ultra- (beyond, extremely) +
Greek micro- (small) +
-scopic (looking) +
Latin silico (like sand) +
volcano +
Greek konis (dust) +
-osis (condition)
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis has 45-letters.
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, made famous by Mary Poppins, has 34-letters.
For a shortened version, pneumoconiosis means the same thing, or you can call it silicosis, or black lung.
