Can you think of a good reason to add this word to your vocabulary:
honorificabilitudinity (ON-uh-rif-i-kay-bi-li-too-DIN-i-tee) a noun meaning Honorableness. Another form of that word was used by Shakespeare. It comes from Costard, the clown, in Love's Labour's Lost:
"I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not so long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier swallowed than a flap-dragon."
I guess you have to read it in context before it makes sense.....LOL.....but I prefer to use a shorter word, one less likely to trip up my tongue and send it crashing around my eye teeth!
And by the way: What the heck is a flap-dragon?
4 comments:
The only use I would find for that word if I was plahing Scrabble.
Wikipedia is your friend! Flapdragon (or Snapdragon) was a parlour game popular from about the 16th to 19th centuries. It was played during the winter, particularly on Christmas Eve. Brandy was heated and placed in a wide shallow bowl; raisins were placed in the brandy which was then set alight. Typically, lights were extinguished or dimmed to increase the eerie effect of the blue flames playing across the liquor. The aim of the game was to pluck the raisins out of the burning brandy and eat them, at the risk of being burnt.
I thought snapdragons were flowers, though...
I dunno, but I know what a snap dragon is... does that count for anything?
I don't know what a flap-dragon is but I doubt I'd want to swallow one anyway.
Great post... you know how much I love words. I'm with you though ... I'll leave the 17 syllable words to Shakespeare. :)
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