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Teh Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words Thread

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  • #16
    Originally posted by Alexander01
    And this one is purportedly the longest in the German language:

    der Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftkapitaensmuetzen knopf
    The thing is, in some languages you can just keep stuffing words next to each other and it'll be grammatically correct. For instance, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the longest "acceptable" Finnish word is lentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikkoaliupseerioppilas - since it's the longest known one that has actually been used for something useful (by the air force). Just that it's called the longest doesn't mean that you can't just keep adding words to it to make it longer, it's just difficult to keep it meaningful. For instance,
    kolmivaihevaihtovirtakilowattituntimittarilentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikkoaliupseerioppilas means approximately "non-commissioned officer student specializing in jet turbine engines of airplanes carrying three-phase AC electricity meters (measuring kilowatt-hours)". Note that the verbs in that sentence don't actually come directly from the word, they're all interpretations based on context: "carrying" could be "consisting of", for instance, that just wouldn't make as much sense.
    This is Shireroth, and Giant Squid will brutally murder me if I ever remove this link from my signature | In the end it won't be love that saves us, it will be mathematics | So many people have this concept of God the Avenger. I see God as the ultimate sense of humor -- SlowwHand

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    • #17
      LS, take it from me, IUPAC suck. And the name is Tryptophan synthase.
      You just wasted six ... no, seven ... seconds of your life reading this sentence.

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      • #18
        Originally posted by joncha
        Polycast
        Useful things only please
        I will never understand why some people on Apolyton find you so clever. You're predictable, mundane, and a google-whore and the most observant of us all know this. Your battles of "wits" rely on obscurity and whenever you fail to find something sufficiently obscure, like this, you just act like a 5 year old. Congratulations, molly.

        Asher on molly bloom

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        • #19
          Hey Datajack, I saw your thread about MOEBIUS... or was it MOBIUS... oh, **** it, anyway, I saw your thread about that guy. Didn't manage to actually get in it, it disappeared pretty quickly, but... are you drunk?
          This is Shireroth, and Giant Squid will brutally murder me if I ever remove this link from my signature | In the end it won't be love that saves us, it will be mathematics | So many people have this concept of God the Avenger. I see God as the ultimate sense of humor -- SlowwHand

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          • #20
            I like bookkeeping.

            And lengthwise.
            Vive la liberte. Noor Inayat Khan, Dachau.

            ...patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone. Edith Cavell, 1915

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            • #21
              Originally posted by Ari Rahikkala
              Hey Datajack, I saw your thread about MOEBIUS... or was it MOBIUS... oh, **** it, anyway, I saw your thread about that guy. Didn't manage to actually get in it, it disappeared pretty quickly, but... are you drunk?
              No no, just very tired after spending the night studying
              I will never understand why some people on Apolyton find you so clever. You're predictable, mundane, and a google-whore and the most observant of us all know this. Your battles of "wits" rely on obscurity and whenever you fail to find something sufficiently obscure, like this, you just act like a 5 year old. Congratulations, molly.

              Asher on molly bloom

              Comment

              • #22
                /me nods

                It would have been a strange time to be drunk anyway... not that I know the habits of gay Italian datajacks... incidentally, I spent the night up too, which is why I'm rambling offtopic in this thread and using ellipses a lot...

                ... but I would have to be wasted to waste my time posting that kind of threads
                This is Shireroth, and Giant Squid will brutally murder me if I ever remove this link from my signature | In the end it won't be love that saves us, it will be mathematics | So many people have this concept of God the Avenger. I see God as the ultimate sense of humor -- SlowwHand

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                • #23
                  Originally posted by LordShiva


                  It's teh formal IUPAC name
                  It isn't...I would be fascinated to actually see you write the full IUPAC name
                  Speaking of Erith:

                  "It's not twinned with anywhere, but it does have a suicide pact with Dagenham" - Linda Smith

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                  • #24
                    Originally posted by Ari Rahikkala
                    * Ari Rahikkala nods

                    It would have been a strange time to be drunk anyway... not that I know the habits of gay Italian datajacks... incidentally, I spent the night up too, which is why I'm rambling offtopic in this thread and using ellipses a lot...

                    ... but I would have to be wasted to waste my time posting that kind of threads

                    You tell me what's better


                    Maya civilization - Wikipedia
                    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_civilization
                    I will never understand why some people on Apolyton find you so clever. You're predictable, mundane, and a google-whore and the most observant of us all know this. Your battles of "wits" rely on obscurity and whenever you fail to find something sufficiently obscure, like this, you just act like a 5 year old. Congratulations, molly.

                    Asher on molly bloom

                    Comment

                    • #25
                      Originally posted by Brachy-Pride
                      English has very short words in average, if english spelling made sense, you could write english sentences is comparatively very little space, which would be uber cool.

                      Even the way it is, the same book in english and spanish, Is much shorter in english.
                      Average word length and average length for a give text are two very different things.

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                      • #26
                        Originally posted by Alexander01
                        And this one is purportedly the longest in the German language:

                        der Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftkapitaensmuetzen knopf
                        Was bedeutet das?
                        I'm about to get aroused from watching the pokemon and that's awesome. - Pekka

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                        • #27
                          Originally posted by Ari Rahikkala
                          Hey Datajack, I saw your thread about MOEBIUS... or was it MOBIUS... oh, **** it, anyway, I saw your thread about that guy. Didn't manage to actually get in it, it disappeared pretty quickly, but... are you drunk?
                          I missed it What was it about?
                          THEY!!111 OMG WTF LOL LET DA NOMADS AND TEH S3D3NTARY PEOPLA BOTH MAEK BITER AXP3REINCES
                          AND TEH GRAAT SINS OF THERE [DOCTRINAL] INOVATIONS BQU3ATH3D SMAL
                          AND!!1!11!!! LOL JUST IN CAES A DISPUTANT CALS U 2 DISPUT3 ABOUT THEYRE CLAMES
                          DO NOT THAN DISPUT3 ON THEM 3XCAPT BY WAY OF AN 3XTARNAL DISPUTA!!!!11!! WTF

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                          • #28
                            Originally posted by Wycoff


                            Was bedeutet das?
                            der Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftkapitaensmuetzen knopf

                            The Button-on-the-cap-of-the-captain-of-the-Danube-steamshipping-association
                            The Apolytoner formerly known as Alexander01
                            "God has given no greater spur to victory than contempt of death." - Hannibal Barca, c. 218 B.C.
                            "We can legislate until doomsday but that will not make men righteous." - George Albert Smith, A.D. 1949
                            The Kingdom of Jerusalem: Chronicles of the Golden Cross - a Crusader Kings After Action Report

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                            • #29
                              Originally posted by Alexander01
                              And this one is purportedly the longest in the German language:

                              der Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftkapitaensmuetzen knopf
                              It's not the longest at all. It's just a typical example of the German language's ability to combine words into bigger ones.
                              Potentially, a German word can have thousands and thousands of characters, and can still mean something. Nobody would remember such a word however, unlike the Donaudampfschiffskapitan.
                              "I have been reading up on the universe and have come to the conclusion that the universe is a good thing." -- Dissident
                              "I never had the need to have a boner." -- Dissident
                              "I have never cut off my penis when I was upset over a girl." -- Dis

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                              • #30
                                Originally posted by Lul Thyme


                                Average word length and average length for a give text are two very different things.
                                Yes, they are not the same, but most of the times it happens that way.

                                There was an article a few months ago about this, for example the translation of a Harry Potter book into spanish took over one fifth more of space than the original in english.

                                You could say english the way it is now is more efficient than spanish, because in english you can express a concept in less space or in shorter time than in spanish.
                                And if english spelling were reformed to make it phonetic, like italian or spanish spalling, it would be even more efficient.
                                I need a foot massage

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