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 floccinaucinihilipilification in the Guinness
Book of Records. (see also: Longest word in English)
If the word is taken literally, it could mean 'against the enemies of the establishment, but not necessarily aligned with the establishment'.
Antidisestablishmentarianism might still be the longest word not invented for the specific purpose of being a long word, however. (the word floccinaucinihilipilification may have been invented as a joke, and is an amalgamation of four Latin words). Presumably its creation invoked the irony of its length, and may have to do with the
politics and commentary of the time period. Also, some criticise its validity on the basis that it has two prefixes ("anti-" and "dis"-) and three suffixes ("-ment", "-arian" and "-ism"), stating that it is not only possible to create a number of longer meaningful words by adding ever more prefixes, but that "antidisestablishmentarianism" is not a standalone word because of them. For example, theoretically "antiantidisestablishmentarianism" is a valid word, where it refers specifically to antidisestablishmentarians' opponents, rather than merely disestablishmentarians in general.
Real-world example
If you take terrorism to be against the establishment, and thus disestablishmentarian, then those who oppose terrorism (but don't necessarily support the
target of terrorism) could be said to be displaying antidisestablishmentarionism.
In
Popular Fiction
In the Honeymooners 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 the Blackadder the Third 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 reducing to the level of saying anti-distinctly-minty, by which time Blackadder has returned two days later.
In Aqua Teen Hunger Force The Cybernetic Ghost of
Christmas 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!"
