Antidisestablishmentarianism is opposition to removing the Anglican church as the established Church of England. It originated in the UK in the 1800s and is often used as an example of a long word. It is not commonly used except in reference to its length.
Antidisestablishmentarianism has historically been defined as opposition to the removal of the Anglican church as the established Church of England. People who advocated disestablishment of the church’s official status were called disestablishmentarians, and their position was called disestablishmentarianism. Therefore, opposition to this position has been called antidisestablishmentarianism. In rare cases, this term could be used as a general reference to opposing the destabilization of something else. Most often, however, it is used as an example of a very long word, and is sometimes claimed to be the longest non-technical word in the English language.
Historical use
This word originated in the UK in the early 1800s. Disestablishmentarianism in the UK led to the removal of the Anglican church as the Church of Ireland in 1871. Several dioceses of the Church of England in Wales have been disorganized in the 1920s. Since then calls for the disinstitution of the Church of England continued, as did the opposing position, anti-disestablishmentarianism.
Opposition to the removal of any government institution could also be termed anti-disestablishmentarianism. This could be in reference to the removal of any official state religion, for example. This use of “antidisestablishmentarianism,” however, is most likely a way to draw attention to this position due to the unusual length of the word.
Word Length
At 28 letters, “antidisestablishmentarianism” is commonly believed to be the longest English word that is not a proper noun, is not a technical or scientific term, and was not intentionally coined to be a particularly long word. It does not appear in some dictionaries because its use has become practically non-existent except in reference to its length. A 29-letter word that appears in some dictionaries is “floccinaucinihilipilification,” which refers to estimating something as worthless, but is almost never used except as an example of a very long word. Even longer English words are usually scientific, medical, or technical terms that combine multiple root words, prefixes, and suffixes.
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