antidisisstablishmentarianism (or however you spell it)

[seal!]

i'm not sure how this word i spelt (i'm sure one of you lot Know) but what is the exact definition.

[Gef]

Try a dictionary. It will show you the meaning and the correct spelling. Sorry..

[JohnPPotts]

Well "Disestablishment" means getting rid of the State church (eg. removing the Queen as head of the Church of England and ending state funding for the Anglican church), a dis...arian is one who holds this belief and dis...arianism is the state of holding such a belief. So antidis.... is one holding the opposing view.

[jenstar]

In other words, it's view that the state church should not be dis-established. Though as nobody actually uses the word except to say how long it is, I reckon it's pretty floccinauccinihiliplificatable.

[flashpig]

Why antidisblahblah... (however it is spelt) rather than just establishmentarianism?

[Ewood27]

Flashpig, that would mean being in favour of a change to "establish" the Anglican Church. That is (still) the established church, so "antidis..." means being opposed to any move to disestablish it. Not quite the same thing.

[flashpig]

I kind of get what you're saying, but I'm sure there are at least some points which have slipped past me. So did 'the establishment' come from 'establishmentarianism', 'disestablishmentarianism', and 'antidisestablishmentarianism', however they are spelt, or was the establishment there already? Are they having sex on big brother?

[Quizmonster]

Actually, Jen, the 'antidis...' word is the only one of these extra-long words that you are at all likely to find in 'real' print. I have done so...admittedly in a very long reading-life...more than once.

As well as the joke-words, there are many scientific, medical and technical words which are just made up of strings of the appropriate jargon-bits...eg naming a protein by listing - as one word - every single gene, molecule or whatever else these things contain. These words can obviously be extremely long, though you are unlikely ever to actually 'see' them, even in a dictionary. The longest of these opens 'methionyl...' and goes on for a further 1900 letters! The longest word in the Oxford English Dictionary is one of those and opens 'pneumonoultra...' and continues to a total of 45 letters. It is the name of a lung disease.

Personally, I'd say that 'antidis...' is a real word and not one just made up for fun or for technical accuracy.

[rob2uk]

From http://brandt.kurowski.net/projects/lsa/wiki/view.
cgi?doc=436 Antidisestablishmentarianism is a political philosophy that is opposed to the separation of church and state. The term originated in the context of the nineteenth century Church of England; antidisestablismentarians were opposed to proposals to remove its status as the state church of England. The term has largely fallen into disuse, although the issue itself is still current; witness recent disputes in the UK over the Act of Settlement.