Peter Enns
Sorry folks, I can’t resist this.
Apparently my years-long letter writing campaign has born fruit: Germany is officially dropping its longest word, 63 letters, the title of a law regulating the testing of beef:
Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz.
The article will even show you how to pronounce it, though you might want to be sitting down and wearing a seatbelt.
My parents were German immigrants and they always lamented how German was becoming more and more Americanized by taking American words and just lazily adding “-ieren” or “-ierung” to the end to make them German (though look for -ierung in the word above. “Etikettierung” means “labeling.” Figure it out.) Still, I can’t imagine they would have a problem with this.
The linked article is great fun to read, and also includes the longest German word ever composed (though not in dictionaries):
Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft.
I’m not sure what to say to that other than Gesundheit.
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