Antidisestablishmentarianism 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 succeeded in England, but failed 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 antidisestablishmentarianism, with 28 letters, is the longest accepted word in the English language. There are other words, however, that are longer. For example: Supercalifragalisticexpialadocious is a nonsense word meaning fantastic. However, since it was taken from Mary Poppins, a fantasy novel for children, it is not as yet considered to be a real "word." The claim that "antidisestablishmentarianism" is the longest word in the English language is actually quite arguable, since antidisestablishmentarianism is used seriously in academic and ecclesiastical writing about the Church of England when the concept arises, which it does occasionally (See e.g. Hastings and "Some notes on the Church of England and Establishment", below). However, since 1992 it has lost this title to floccinaucinihilip...