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would toss around?

2006-07-22 23:15:04 · 12 answers · asked by lowonbrain 2 in Society & Culture Languages

People - I said the most sophisticated (as in elegant, precise, moving, and meaningful) and NOT the longest or necessarily the most bizarre! I am obviously curious about YOUR opinion in this case. Had I merely been interested in knowing the longest word in the English language, I could have easily looked it up myself!

P.S. Nice job, Professor - Great Answer!

2006-07-23 13:37:47 · update #1

12 answers

I like synchronic and diachronic. Only linguists use these two words.

EDIT: And reading through the other answers, the ONLY words that have been offered that Linguistics Profs ever use are "etymology", "acculturation", "categorically", and "crux". While we never say, "serendipity", we do use the adjective form "serendipitous". And just because "antidisestablishmentarianism" is long, doesn't mean that anyone ever uses it because its historical reference was 100 years ago and no one ever talks about the disestablishment movement anymore except historians (not linguists).

The key to a professor's vocabulary is not length of word, but precision in meaning, which means that longer words are not as important as shorter words that have a very precise meaning. The key question about the word is, "Does it take more syllables to say the word or to give a paraphrase?" A "crux" is more precisely relevant to a point of decision or a point of maximum difficulty than the words "cross" or "crossroads", which have too many general connotations to make them precise for the same notion. "Seredipitous" is also extremely precise in its meaning (the quality of having been found while looking for something else) and doesn't match any other single word in English.

2006-07-22 23:18:44 · answer #1 · answered by Taivo 7 · 3 0

Probably "pompous", the only problem is that they don't realize it fits only for them. People who have to use such words often look down on people who find no need to be so dramatic about what is said. Give me a average speaker with a tasty topic over a linguist with the need to be heard any day.

2006-07-23 06:26:48 · answer #2 · answered by Artistic Prof. 3 · 0 0

Well, this word doesn't being used by the Prof's...but it appears in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost, and which has been cited as [dubious] evidence that Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare's plays)

"honorificabilitudinitatibus"

I dunno what it means actually. But try to find inside the Oxford English Dictionary..

2006-07-23 06:22:40 · answer #3 · answered by nickris.user_1.4.6.8 2 · 0 0

Phrase====ameliorate obsfucation


It means == avoid using unnecessarily complicated words

2006-07-23 06:20:46 · answer #4 · answered by Unknown Oscillator 3 · 0 0

Disestablishmentarianism.

2006-07-23 06:19:11 · answer #5 · answered by synchronicity915 6 · 0 0

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious or pneumonoultramicroscopic- silicovolcanoconiosis

or if not

I agree with the disestablishmentarianism which is my first answer. Unfortunately the other was first to answer before me.

2006-07-23 06:27:06 · answer #6 · answered by brandy q 2 · 0 0

well the longest is antidisestablishmentarianism

acculturation is one of my favs

2006-07-23 06:29:50 · answer #7 · answered by salientsamurai 3 · 0 0

sinistral is a good one it means left handed

2006-07-23 06:19:16 · answer #8 · answered by gwaz 5 · 0 0

lugubrious, polymorphic, legerdemain, nexus, etymology, crux, categorically.

2006-07-23 06:20:02 · answer #9 · answered by taishar68 2 · 0 0

Dumbass, like your handle implies.

2006-07-23 06:22:04 · answer #10 · answered by zanyzekethewit 2 · 0 0

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