week 2: csi it should now be quite clear that the real reason that i didn’t select bibliokleptomaniac last week was because i knew that an even longer word was in the queue. and not just any long word, apparently the longest word in the oxford english dictionary. but—as your girlfriend constantly reminds you—length is not critical. in fact, the search for long words (just as the search for the farthest reaches of pi) is folly. no word illustrates this better than pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis which was coined in a word competition to coin large words. betocsin · to furnish with tutorsk.c.s.i. · knight commander of the star of indiatocsin · a signal, especially an alarm-signal sounded by ringing a bell __ incidentally: among word nerd circles (of which i am mostly a tangent) this word is simply referred to as p45, thus reducing a 45 letter word to a mere 3 characters.

week 2: csi

it should now be quite clear that the real reason that i didn’t select bibliokleptomaniac last week was because i knew that an even longer word was in the queue. and not just any long word, apparently the longest word in the oxford english dictionary. but—as your girlfriend constantly reminds you—length is not critical. in fact, the search for long words (just as the search for the farthest reaches of pi) is folly. no word illustrates this better than pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis which was coined in a word competition to coin large words.

betocsin · to furnish with tutors
k.c.s.i. · knight commander of the star of india
tocsin · a signal, especially an alarm-signal sounded by ringing a bell

__

incidentally: among word nerd circles (of which i am mostly a tangent) this word is simply referred to as p45, thus reducing a 45 letter word to a mere 3 characters.

June 23, 2011
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