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英語學習:最長的英文單詞解析

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PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICOVOLCANOCONIOSIS

padding-bottom: 138.53%;">英語學習:最長的英文單詞解析

矽肺病

At 45 letters, this is the longest word you’ll find in a major dictionary. An inflated version of silicosis, this is the full scientific name for a disease that causes inflammation in the lungs owing to the inhalation of very fine silica dust. Despite its inclusion in the dictionary, it’s generally considered superfluous, having been coined simply to claim the title of the longest English word.

矽肺病的英文名有45個字母,是主流字典中收錄的最長單詞。這是矽肺病的英文學名全稱,silicosis(矽肺病)的“加長版”。矽肺病是一種因爲吸入細微矽塵導致肺部發炎的疾病。儘管這個單詞被收入字典,但一般來說,人們認爲這個名稱多此一舉,是爲了獲得最長英語單詞的頭銜而杜撰的。

METHIONYLTHREONYLTHREONYGLUTAMINYLARGINYL … ISOLEUCINE

肌聯蛋白

Note the ellipses. All told, the full chemical name for the human protein titin is 189,819 letters, and takes about three-and-a-half hours to pronounce. The problem with including chemical names is that there’s essentially no limit to how long they can be. For example, naming a single strand of DNA, with its millions and millions of repeating base pairs, could eventually tab out at well over 1 billion letters.

注意此處的省略號。人體肌聯蛋白的完整化學名稱總共有189819個字母,十八萬九千八百一十九個!對,你沒看錯,就是189819個字母!讀完需要三個半小時。

這麼坑爹的單詞是怎麼誕生的?這就要從IUPAC命名法說起了。把化學名稱列出來的問題是,其長度基本上沒有限制。例如,根據一串DNA所包含的數百萬重複鹼基對爲其命名,最終取出來的名字可能超過10億個字母。

這個世界上有一個名叫International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry(國際純粹與應用化學聯合會)的組織,它最有名的工作就是定義化學等領域的專有名詞。它出過一本“藍寶書”(你沒看錯,它的外號就是The Blue Book)IUPAC Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry,也就是《IUPAC有機化學命名法》。

LOPADOTEMACHOSELACHOGALEOKRANIOLEIPSAN …P TERYGON

大亂燉

The longest word ever to appear in literature comes from Aristophanes’ play, Assemblywomen, published in 391 BC. The Greek word tallies 171 letters, but translates to 183 in English. This mouthful refers to a fictional fricassee comprised of rotted dogfish head, wrasse, wood pigeon, and the roasted head of a dabchick, among other culinary morsels.

文學作品中的最長單詞出自阿里斯多芬尼斯於公元前391年發表的劇作《女議員》。這個希臘單詞有171個字母,翻譯成英文單詞後變爲183個字母。這個冗長而拗口的單詞指的是一道虛構的大燉菜,包含了腐爛的狗鯊頭、隆頭魚、斑尾林鴿以及烤小䴙䴘頭和其他烹飪食物。