Friday, June 09, 2006

Say This Once...Real Slow!



pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis

noun:

(NOO-muh-noh-UL-truh-MY-kruh-SKOP-ik-SIL-i-koh-VOL-kay-no-koh-NEE-o-sis, nyoo-)


A lung disease caused by inhaling fine particles of silica.[From New Latin, from Greek pneumono- (lung) + Latin ultra- (beyond,extremely) + Greek micro- (small) + -scopic (looking) + Latin silico(like sand) + volcano + Greek konis (dust) + -osis (condition).]

By any other name this would still be unpronounceable.

4 comments:

Peter said...

I love this word. I put it in a poem once. But it didn't work out.

Crunchy Weta said...

Hi, Wouldn't it be polite to acknowledge your source?? Umm Wordsmith springs to mind.

Nick said...

Peter,

Yup, it's a mouthful alright! Great Word.


Crunchy,

Received this in an e-mail from a friend. Didn't realize it was from "Wordsmith". Umm, wouldn't it be polite to use your real name??

Crunchy Weta said...

Hi Nick, Crunchy is such an unfortunate name isn't it?
Anyway here is a link to the provider of many interesting words...

http://wordsmith.org/awad/index.html

No harm done or anything,
Cheers
Glenn