We can only hope Angela Merkel said the word while looking at this meat. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)
People who are learning German often remark that they have to take a deep breath before embarking on the epic task of saying some of the language's famously Brobdingnagian compound nouns. Why bother with making up new words, the German thinking seems to go, when you can just glue existing ones together?
Geschwindigkeitsbeschränkungen? That's a speed limit -- which you'll probably pass before you have a chance to sound it out. Want to foil hackers? Trying setting your password to Handschuhschneeballwerfer, or a slang term for coward.
But eventually, things went too far, even for the Germans.
Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz -- a 63-letter word that describes a "law for the delegation of monitoring beef labelling" -- has been kicked out of the Deutsch lexicon, thanks to the law's repeal in a regional parliament.
But perhaps it's not such a big loss: Because the word was used so infrequently, it wasn't in dictionaries. The longest German word in the country 's official records is the 39-letter Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften, which is an insurance company that provides legal protection. (English actually beats that record, with the 45-letter pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.)
And now, let's sayauf Wiedersehen to Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz by listening to how it was pronounced:
The longest word in the German language—the 63-letter-long Rindfleischetikettierungsueberwachungsaufgabenuebertragungsgesetz—was created to represent a law about beef regulation.
At 80 letters, the longest word ever composed in German is "Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft," meaning, the "Association for Subordinate Officials of the Head Office Management of the Danube Steamboat Electrical Services." But it's a coinage of strung together more for ...
The longest word in German. Germany's most famous, 63-letter word (Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragunsgesetz) - which was once the holder of the Guinness world record - was made obsolete in 2013, but here are some other hilariously long German words to tide you over.
So the longest word to be found in the German dictionary is Kraftfahrzeughaftpflichtversicherung – "motor vehicle indemnity insurance". As Mark Twain said "a word so long it has a perspective".
1. methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylalanyl…isoleucine. You'll notice there's an ellipsis here, and that's because this word, in total, is 189,819 letters long, and it's the chemical name for the largest known protein, titin.
The longest word in any of the major English language dictionaries is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45 letters), a word that refers to a lung disease contracted from the inhalation of very fine silica particles, specifically from a volcano; medically, it is the same as silicosis.
As explained above, the longest “official” word in German, in the sense that you could find it in a dictionary, is Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz, weighing in at 63 letters long.
A 79 letter word, Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft, was named the longest published word in the German language by the 1972 Guinness Book of World Records, but longer words are possible.
3. The German vocabulary. The German language consists of about 5.3 million words – with a rising trend. About one third of those words was added in the last 100 years.
Fun Fact: Dziewięćsetdziewięćdziesięciodziewięcionarodowościowego is the longest Polish word with 54 letters. It roughly stands for “of nine-hundred and ninety-nine nationalities”.
German is definitely known for its ϋber-long words. Many words in the German language are formed by combining two or more words, known in English as compound nouns. The meanings of the individual words have a direct bearing on what the compound noun means. The German language is, thus, very descriptive.
Either Twain spoke remarkably good German, or his German was so mangled that the curator found it amusing. Either way, the information in the essay suggest more than a passing familiarity with the language.
dict.cc | hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia [mostly hum ] [fear of long words] | Übersetzung Deutsch-Englisch. [und ein Rebhuhn in einem Birnbaum] [hum.]
Backpfeifengesicht. Long by English standards, backpfeifengesicht is among the shorter of the long German words, coming in at only 18 letters. However, the meaning is really quite fun. Roughly translated, backpfeifengesicht means “a face in need of a fist”.
Rinderkennzeichnungsfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz. Letters: 79. English meaning: Delegation transfer law for cattle labeling and beef labeling supervision duties. So, Rinderkennzeichnungsfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz is the longest word in the German ...
Address: Suite 492 62479 Champlin Loop, South Catrice, MS 57271
Phone: +9663362133320
Job: District Sales Analyst
Hobby: Digital arts, Dance, Ghost hunting, Worldbuilding, Kayaking, Table tennis, 3D printing
Introduction: My name is Kieth Sipes, I am a zany, rich, courageous, powerful, faithful, jolly, excited person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
