Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 February 1886 — The Longest Word. [ARTICLE]

The Longest Word.

.In reply to a qestion concerning thi Alleged longest word in the Englisl language the New York Journal o„ Commerce says: “It is not in either Webster or Worcester, but may bi found in the fourth edition of Bailey’i dictionary, and in the work of E. Coles published in 1701. Blount afian earliei dqite (1656) gives both an English and i Latin form, as foUows: “Honorifica bilitudmitv (honrificabilitndinatas) hon orableness. -• Marston refers to it in “The Dutcl Courtezan” (1604), he affirmi that “His discourse is like the wore honorificabilitudinitatibus, a great dea of sound and no sense.” Bu t this is i libel on the word, whioh is used in man; ancient volumes with the meaning as cribed to it in the above definition, i knife-grinder has it painted on his raa chine to announce his trade. Being asked what it meant, he answered the he did not know, but it was the longeer word he could pick out in the diction ary, having twenty-two letters, and hi had looked the book through to find it —AtiOnla Constitution.