Longest bad word in english

What is the longest bad word?

Try ‘n top me. (If any person, group, club etc. etc.

What does the F word mean?

—used as a way to refer to the offensive word “fuck” without saying it or writing it He got in trouble for using the f-word on television.

Is frickin a bad word?

“Frigging,” previously profanity in its own right, lost both its edge and its original meaning and became wholly acceptable as an anodyne substitute for a completely different swear word. “By the mid-20th century it’s become a minced oath, so it’s not considered offensive anymore, really,” says Bergen.

What is all the swear words?

I’ve picked 40 common swears and ranked them in order of delivery satisfaction, from least enjoyable to most satisfying to say.

• Arse.
• Git.
• Bugger.
• Sod.
• Bloody.
• Crap.
• Damn.
• Cow. If someone calls you a cow, regardless of whether they are Kat Slater or not, you cannot truly feel offended.

Does cursing make you dumber?

Swearing Is Actually a Sign of More Intelligence – Not Less – Say Scientists. The use of obscene or taboo language – or swearing, as it’s more commonly known – is often seen as a sign that the speaker lacks vocabulary, cannot express themselves in a less offensive way, or even lacks intelligence.

What does God say about profanity?

Paul warns us in Ephesians 4:29 “Do not let any unwholesome (filthy) talk come from your mouth, but only what is good for building someone up in need.” Then he says in Ephesians 5:4 “Nor should there be any obscenity, foolish talk or crude joking, which are out of place.”

Is saying on God a sin?

You dishonor God’s name by saying it. Out of all the names in the world “God” has been used (throughout history) to express disgust. Yes, it is a sin and it is a sin against one of the Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”

What is forbidden to eat in Christianity?

Prohibited foods that may not be consumed in any form include all animals—and the products of animals—that do not chew the cud and do not have cloven hoofs (e.g., pigs and horses); fish without fins and scales; the blood of any animal; shellfish (e.g., clams, oysters, shrimp, crabs) and all other living creatures that …

Is pork allowed in Christianity?

Although Christianity is also an Abrahamic religion, most of its adherents do not follow these aspects of Mosaic law and are permitted to consume pork. However, Seventh-day Adventists consider pork taboo, along with other foods forbidden by Jewish law.

What does God say about eating pork?

Bible Gateway Leviticus 11 :: NIV. You may eat any animal that has a split hoof completely divided and that chews the cud. And the pig, though it has a split hoof completely divided, does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. You must not eat their meat or touch their carcasses; they are unclean for you.

Can Muslims touch pork?

According to Islamic belief, pork is dirty, and at the very least, should not be eaten. Abdullahi believes the ban extends much further than not eating pork. He says Islam’s holy book, the Quran makes it clear that one cannot sell or even touch pork. We cannot eat it and cannot touch it.

Why do Jews not eat pork?

» The word kosher, literally meaning “clean” or “pure,” refers to food that has been prepared in accordance with Jewish rules and rituals so it can be eaten by religious Jews. » Because the Torah allows eating only animals that both chew their cud and have cloven hooves, pork is prohibited.

Can Jews drink alcohol?

Judaism. Judaism relates to consumption of alcohol, particularly of wine, in a complex manner. Wine is viewed as a substance of import and it is incorporated in religious ceremonies, and the general consumption of alcoholic beverages is permitted, however inebriation (drunkenness) is discouraged.

Why do Jews wear skull caps?

Most Jews will cover their heads when praying, attending the synagogue or at a religious event or festival. Wearing a skullcap is seen as a sign of devoutness. Women also cover their heads by wearing a scarf or a hat. The most common reason (for covering the head) is a sign of respect and fear of God.

Why do Jews Rock when they pray?

Every time a Jew engages with the Torah, the light of his or her soul ignites, which is why he or she moves like the flame of a candle. This striking image illustrates the desire of many religious Jews to connect directly with God by learning and praying.

Why do Jews step on glass?

The breaking of the glass holds multiple meanings. Some say it represents the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. Others say it demonstrates that marriage holds sorrow as well as joy and is a representation of the commitment to stand by one another even in hard times.

Why do Jews cover mirrors?

When a creation of God dies, this lessens His image. The death of human beings disrupts the connection between the living man and living God. Since the purpose of mirrors is to reflect such image, they are covered during mourning.

Why do Hasidic wives wear wigs?

Orthodox women do not show their hair in public after their wedding. With a headscarf or a wig – referred to in Yiddish as a sheitel – they signal to their surroundings that they are married and that they comply with traditional notions of propriety.

Why do Jews touch the door?

After the blessing, the mezuzah is attached. Whenever passing through the doorway, many people touch a finger to the mezuzah as a way of showing respect to God. Many people also kiss their finger after touching it to the mezuzah.

7-minute read

1 The longest word?

“Everyone knows” that with its gargantuan 28 letters antidisestablishmentarianism is “the longest word in English”. Actually, it isn’t. The “longest word in any dictionary” depends on the dictionary you happen to be consulting: in the Oxford Dictionary Online it is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, which weighs in at 45 letters and was invented as a sort of parody of long medical terms. It is not in Merriam-Webster Online (though it is in their Unabridged), and nor is antidisestablishmentarianism.

Curiously, electroencephalographically, with its mere 27 characters, is in M-W, but floccinaucinihilipilification with its 29 characters isn’t – though it is in the Oxford Online along with our hero word.

Actually, “the longest word” is not really a “word” in any meaningful sense of the word “word”; rather it is a string of 189,819 letters for the chemical formula of the protein Titin. If you have 90 minutes or so to spare, you can watch someone reading it out here.

2 Who cares?

Quite a few people, it seems. After all, many of us are perennially fascinated by the quirkier facets of our language (e.g. is there a word in which all the vowel letters appear once and only once, but in alphabetical order?). Our curiosity is piqued by the cryptophallic (as some would suggest) biggest/richest/longest/smallest pretty much anything –est, as the appeal of the Guinness Book of Records shows (what is the greatest number of gerbils eaten by one person in one sitting?) Those two factors combine, it seems to me, to produce what I can only describe as sesquipedalianophilous indagaciousness (37 letters, but, sadly, two words), “the inquisitiveness associated with the love of long words”.

3 Has it always been “the longest word”?

I can’t say for sure when antidisestablishmentarianism acquired its mythical status (but see 4 below for some clues).

However, a search of Google Ngrams shows that in 1901, in an issue of the Writer, A Monthly Magazine for Literary Workers, founded by two Boston Globe journalists, it was the four-letters-shorter disestablishmentarianism that was cited as the longest word in English. (The magazine is still going strong). And in Current Advertising of the same year, there is the following quote: “If anybody really wants to know, it may be authoritatively stated that the longest legitimate word is disestablishmentarianism. Don’t let the fact that it isn’t in the dictionary worry you. The word was coined and used by the late Mr. Gladstone…” (that attribution is probably apocryphal).

If you enjoy this blog, there’s an easy way for you to find out when I blog again. Just sign up (in the right-hand column) and you’ll receive an email to tell you. “Simples!”, as the meerkats say. I blog (semi-ir)regularly about issues of English usage, word histories, and writing tips. 

4 Is it a “real” word?

4.1 If by that we mean “Is it a word that is used in real discourse, rather than a word that is exclusively cited as an example of a long word?”, then the answer is “yes”, as I think this blog will demonstrate. However, a bit like that running machine that sits, rarely or never switched on, in some people’s homes, it is more exciting as an idea than in reality: it is rather more talked about and discussed qua longest word than ever actively used. Merriam-Webster goes so far as to say that “Merriam-Webster doesn’t enter antidisestablishmentarianism in any of its dictionaries because the evidence indicates that the word is almost never used anymore.”

(And for discussion of anymore vs. any more, you’ve come to the right place.)

What Merriam-Webster says is true, but only up to a point. In some ways, the word is a treasured fossil, a linguistic curiosity, possibly even deserving the title “English language national treasure.” Discussion about the disestablishment of the Church, which gave rise to it, is not as topical as it was at times in the 19th century. However, such discussion can occur. The Church of England is “established”, making it the “state” religion or church: in other words, among other things, it is used on state occasions and the monarch is its supreme governor. There are those who feel that this link between Church and State should be sundered, and the Church disestablished: such people can be said to be of a disestablishmentarianist disposition

4.2 The earliest OED citation and earlier still citations

Interestingly, the first OED entry for antidisestablishmentarianism is from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable of 1923, at the entry for long words. However, the Bulletin of the Grosvenor Library, Buffalo (Volumes 1-4, p. 168), has this from 1918: “I can go this one better, with a word which I have been told, ever since childhood, was the longest in the English language, it is antidisestablishmentarianism, containing 28 letters, and meaning, of course, the doctrine of those who did not wish…” The “this” apparently refers to an earlier claim in the same publication that anthropomorphologically (23 letters) was the longest.

4.3 And a 1919 edition of Everyland: A Magazine of World Friendship for Girls and Boys has this: “Dorothy Knudson says it is “antitransubstantiationalistically” : Alison Bryant, Rose Gibson, Lucretia Ilsley, and Isabel Weedon say it is antidisestablishmentarianism.” (Vol 10, Issues 7-12, p. 336.)

From which it is clear that by that date several readers of the magazine took anti…ism to be the longest. As regards the even longer, 33-letter contender, antitransubstantiationalistically, that it was ever actually used looks extremely dubious.

(Although a correspondent adds a letter s and professes to be “antitranssubstantiationalistically inclined.” Transubstantiation is the doctrine that at the moment of consecration the wine and the host become the blood and body of Christ.)

5 Why is it known (by many) as the longest word?

Partly, I suggest, because it consists of familiar individual parts that make it possible to remember, unlike, say, the monster mentioned at 4.3 above. Then, it has longevity: as mentioned earlier, it was first mentioned as the champ a century and a year ago.

It also has, to my mind at least, a distinct and winning personality.

I must have found out about it as a child. Its eleven (or twelve, depending) syllables with their repeated i and s sounds seemed to have an amazing dynamism, like a choo-choo building up steam towards the main stress on the eighth. And its two negative prefixes, anti- and dis-, seemed bafflingly at loggerheads with one another, creating a strange double negative. It had all the magical, talismanic power that words can have for young children. Once encountered, it can never be unremembered.

6 What do all the different bits mean?

It is also a remarkable example of how prefixes and suffixes can be coupled together, a bit like railway carriages. If you uncouple them, what do you get? anti-dis-establish-ment-arian-ism. In other words, the locomotive of this word is the verb establish. Why is that?

7 It’s all to do with politics and religion

In England (and here England means England, not Scotland or Wales) the Church of England is “established”. This means it is the official Church, and has several links with the State. For instance, the monarch is its head, and any measures passed by the Church’s governing body have to be approved by Parliament. (In the US, in contrast, no Church has this constitutionally privileged role).

Historically, this dominance of the Church of England has been disputed—and in some circles still is. Those in favour of maintaining it as the established Church were called establishmentarians…

7.1 Establishmentarian

The OED records this word as a noun from 1846, and as an adjective from 1847: “Those who, like myself, are called High Churchmen, have little or no sympathy with mere Establishmentarians.”—Hook, 1846.

It seems that Gladstone did not much care for the word: in the Contemporary Review of June 1875 he wrote “The prosecutors…are strongly (to use a barbarous word) establishmentarian.”
(It is worth remembering that Gladstone was a considerable classical scholar, and will no doubt have had firm views on what were barbarous—that is questionably formed from an etymological point of view—words).

7.2 Establishmentarianism

And the philosophy upheld by establishmentarians is of course…establishmentarianism. In 1873 the noted philologist Fitzedward Hall wrote of Richard Chenevix Trench (the admirer of female rowing crews and original inspiration for the creation of the OED) that “Establishmentarianism was wont to roll over the prelatial [Abp. Trench’s] tongue“. Chenevix Trench was in fact Archbishop of Dublin when the C of E was disestablished in Ireland, in 1871.

7.3 A secondary, more modern meaning

The adjective cum noun establishmentarian also has a more modern meaning, as the OED defines it: “Pertaining to or characteristic of the establishment; supportive of or favouring the establishment and its values; establishment-minded, conservative”. First recorded, it seems, in the economist J.K. Galbraith’s journal in early 1962. A more recent example is: In 1976, he left the abortion rights league, in part because he believed it was becoming too establishmentarian” (NYT, 2006).

7.4 Disestablishmentarian

Those in favour of disestablishing the Church were, naturally, disestablishmentarians, first recorded from 1885 in the unrevised OED entry, but traceable in Google Ngrams at least as far back as The Church Herald of 1874: “…no public event has done more mischief as regards turning men’s minds into a Disestablishmentarian channel than the recent policy of the Bishops’ Bench as expounded by the two Primates.”

And their philosophy is disestablishmentarianism (OED, 1897).

7.5 Antidisestablishmentarian(ism)

Those opposed to disestablishment are, inevitably, antidisestablishmentarians. If you knocked off the first two prefixes, you would get back to establishmentarian, which would not, however, mean exactly the same thing. The first OED entry for antidisestablishmentarian is from the journal Notes and Queries of 1900. And for antidisestablishmentarianism from 1923, as previously mentioned, which takes us full circle.

NB: This is an updated version of a post first published four years ago, re-posted because I’m short of time.