antidisestablishmentarianism

English

WOTD – 29 March 2006

Etymology

From anti- +‎ disestablishmentarian +‎ -ism.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌæntiˌdɪsɪˌstæblɪʃmənˈtɛəɹiəˌnɪz(ə)m/

• Audio (Received Pronunciation):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌæntaɪˌdɪsɪˌstæblɪʃmənˈtɛɚiəˌnɪz(ə)m/, /ˌæn.ti-/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: an‧ti‧dis‧es‧tab‧lish‧ment‧ar‧i‧an‧ism

Noun

antidisestablishmentarianism (usually uncountable, plural antidisestablishmentarianisms)

1. A political philosophy opposed to the separation of a religious group (church) and a government (state), especially the belief held by those in 19th-century England opposed to separating the Anglican church from the civil government or to refer to separation of church and state. [from 20th c.]

   Antonym: disestablishmentarianism

   • 1998, University of Oklahoma College of Law, American Indian Law Review:

     Jed Rubenfeld, who actually may not have been recycling a Boerne Court- rejected argument into a law review article,⁴⁵⁰ reasoned that RFRA indeed lacked constitutionality, but because of First Amendment antidisestablishmentarianism, and not the reasons offered by the Court.⁴⁵¹

   • 2002, Angela Hague, David Lavery (credited as editors, but actually authors of the compiled fictional reviews), Teleparody: predicting/preventing the TV discourse of tomorrow:

     The establishmentarianism of Hatch's alliance-building strategy undermined by the disestablishmentarianism of Wiglesworth's treachery triggers an antidisestablishmentarianism in Hawk — but the negation of Wiglesworth's 'dis' coupled with the counter-negation of Hawk's 'anti' does not simply generate a synthetic affirmation of Hatch's 'establishmentarianism'. Instead, Hawk's antidisestablishmentarianism, like a cancerous wart on the end of the nose, is perched at the fuzzy border separating ontology from oncology, malignity from malignancy.

   • 2005 April 9, “Crowning nonsense”, in The Guardian‎^[1], →ISSN:

     As we said yesterday, the case for antidisestablishmentarianism has never been more threadbare.

Related terms

• antidisestablishmentarian
• disestablishmentarianism
• establish
• established church
• establishment

 

Translations

philosophy opposed to separating church and state

• Bulgarian: антидизетаблишментарианизъм n or impf (antidizetablišmentarianizǎm)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 反政教分離主義／反政教分离主义 (fǎn zhèngjiào fēnlí zhǔyì)

• Czech: antidestablishmentarianismus n or impf or pf
• Danish: antidisestablishmentarianisme c
• Dutch: antidisestablishmentarisme n
• Esperanto: kontraŭmalfondistismo
• Estonian: antidistablishmentarianism sg
• Finnish: valtiokirkollisuus, valtiokirkon puolustaminen
• German: Antisäkularisierung f
• Irish: frith-dhíbhunaíochas m
• Kapampangan: makipapamangapangontrapangakalasakanan
• Polish: antydisestablishmentaryzm n or impf

Trivia

Known as a superlatively long word, it is, with 28 letters and 12 syllables, probably the longest non-technical and non-contrived word in English. The jocular term floccinaucinihilipilification is one letter longer.

See also

• dacryocystorhinostomy
• floccinaucinihilipilification
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• pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
• pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism
• supercalifragilisticexpialidocious