Antidisestablishmentarianism

Antidisestablishmentarianism (listen to , ) originated in the context of the nineteenth century Church of England, where "antidisestablishmentarians" were opposed to proposals to remove the Church's status as the state church of England. The movement failed in England, but succeeded in Ireland and Wales, with the Church of Ireland being disestablished in 1871 and the Church of Wales in 1920. Antidisestablishmentarian members of the Free Church of Scotland delayed merger with the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland in a dispute about the position of the Church of Scotland. The term has largely fallen into disuse, although the issue itself is still current (see Act of Settlement 1701).

The word

Some people regard the word antidisestablishmentarianism, with 28 letters, as the longest accepted word in the English language, and as a verb invokes the use of a double negative with "anti" used against "disestablishment" with the same effect as "establishmentarian". The word is used seriously in academic and ecclesiastical writing about the Church of England (whereas the word floccinaucinihilipilification may have been invented as a joke and is an amalgamation of four Latin words). It was also used as a term to describe Indigenous Australians during the Native Title disputes in Australia in the late 1980s and early 1990s prior the Mabo v Queensland decision in the High Court of Australia in 1992. Presumably the creation of the word antidisestablishmentarianism invoked the irony of its length, and may have to do with the politics and commentary of the time.

Some criticize its validity on the basis that it has two prefixes ("anti-" and "dis"-) and three suffixes ("-ment", "-arian" and "-ism"), stating that not only is it possible to create a number of longer meaningful words by adding ever more prefixes, or changing the existing ones (e.g. changing "-ism" into the equally valid and longer suffix "-istic"), but that "antidisestablishmentarianism" is not a stand-alone word because of them. For example, theoretically "counterantidisestablishmentarianism" is a valid word, where it refers specifically to antidisestablishmentarians' opponents, rather than merely disestablishmentarians in general.

Popular use

The existence of this word is well known, if not necessarily the meaning, and is therefore widely used for humorous effect in video. some examples are:

• In The Honeymooners TV show episode "The $99,000 Answer", Alice asks Ralph to spell the word. Ralph says he'll spell it if she gives him $16,000 for spelling it. She tells him she'll give him twice the amount if he can say it.

• In an episode of The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour TV variety show, Tommy Smothers improvises a stanza of "My Old Man's an Anthropologist" starting with "My old man's an antidisestablishmentarian...", bringing the song to an abrupt halt.

• In the Blackadder the Third TV show episode "Dish and Dishonesty", the title character tells Prince George that he shall return 'before you can say antidisestablishmentarianism'. The Prince makes many attempts at saying it, eventually reduced to the level of saying anti-distinctly-minty-monetarism, by the time Blackadder has returned two days later.

• In an episode of the animated TV show Aqua Teen Hunger Force, a Cybernetic Turkey from the future makes the statement that tacos do not exist in the future, stating, "I think we all know why. Anti taco legislation! Disestablishmentarianism!"

• In an episode of the animated TV show A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo compete against two child geniuses in a Wheel of Fortune-like game show. The first word is 28 letters and the child geniuses correctly guess it is "antidisestablishmentarianism" without uncovering any letters.

• In the movie SLC Punk the word "antidisestablishmentarianism" is spray painted on the side of Stevo's van.

• In the animated TV show "Arthur", The Brain tries to spell "antidisestablishmentarianism" while studying for a school spelling bee.

• In the video game Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc, Murfy exclaims, "Extraordinary! Extraordinary! There's no other word for it! Antidisestablishmenextraordinarianism!" when the player unlocks a door.

• During the commercial break for the show "Recess", Gretchen Grundler said “We will be back faster than you can say antidisestablishmentarianism.”

• Appears in the Lemon Demon video "Word Disassociation"

• In the TV show "Breaker High", character Tamara claims "antidisestablishmentarianism" as the longest word she knows, in order to impress others at a socialites party.

• In the film "The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio" character Evelyn Ryan suggests "antidisestablishmentarianism" be used in a contest restricted in number of words used as it packs a bigger punch letter than the word "the".

See also

• Christian anarchism
• Disestablishmentarianism
• Antiestablishmentarianism
• Religion in the United Kingdom
• Welsh Church Act 1914
• Longest word in English
• Floccinoccinihilipilification

References

• Adrian Hastings, Church and state : the English experience (Exeter : University of Exeter Press, 1991.)
• antidisestablishmentarianism in the Online Etymology Dictionary