Antidisestablishmentarianism

Antidisestablishmentarianism (listen to , ) is a political position which originated in nineteenth-century Britain, where "antidisestablishmentarians" were opposed to proposals to remove the Church of England's status as the state church of England.

The movement succeeded in predominantly Anglican England, but failed overwhelmingly in Roman Catholic Ireland – where the Church of Ireland was disestablished in 1871 – and in Wales whose Church of Wales was disestablished 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).

Word Length

The word "antidisestablishmentarianism" itself is often referenced in English-speaking popular culture due to its unusual length of 28 letters. It is the longest word in the English language, excluding coined and technical terms not found in major dictionaries.

While it is commonly called the longest word in the English language, there are longer ones; however these have the dubious distinctions of being coined by specific authors in relatively modern times, or being obscure technical names. For instance, Floccinaucinihilipilification is one letter longer, but was coined by William Shenstone in 1741.

References

• Adrian Hastings, Church and state : the English experience (Exeter : University of Exeter Press, 1991.)
• Antidisestablishmentarianism in the Online Etymology Dictionary
• A video explanation of the origin of the word by Philologist HotForWords