The Longest Word in English No. 4

Lopadotemakhoselakhogameokranioleipsanodrimypotrimmatosilphiokarabo-melitokatakekhymenokikhlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptokephallio-kigklopeleiolagōiosiraiobaphētraganopterýgōn (183 letters) is the fourth longest word in English, it describes a dish by stringing together its ingredients. This fictional dish was mentioned in ancient Greek comedic playwright Aristophanes’ comedy Assemblywomen.

Liddell and Scott translate this as “name of a dish compounded of all kinds of dainties, fish, flesh, fowl, and sauces.”

The dish was a fricassee, with 17 sweet and sour ingredients, including brains, honey, vinegar, fish, pickles, and the following: fish slices, fish of the Elasmobranchii subclass (a shark or ray), rotted dogfish or small shark’s head, generally sharp-tasting dish of several ingredients grated and pounded together, Silphion “laserwort” (apparently a kind of giant fennel), a kind of crab (beetle, or crayfish), eagle, cheese, honey poured down, wrasse (or thrush), on top of a kind of sea fish or Blackbird, wood pigeon, domestic pigeon, chicken, roasted head of dabchick, hare (which could be a kind of bird or a kind of sea-hare), new wine boiled down, dessert fruit or thing eaten raw, wing (fin).

In the Greek alphabet: λοπαδοτεμαχοσελαχογαλεοκρανιολειψανοδριμυπο-τριμματοσιλφιοκαραβομελιτοκατακεχυμενοκιχλεπικοσσυφοφαττοπεριστερ-αλεκτρυονοπτοκεφαλλιοκιγκλοπελειολαγῳοσιραιοβαφητραγανοπτερύγων.

Here’s live performance of Aristophanes’ Assemblywomen:

P.S. Lopadotemachoselachogameokranioleipsanodrimhypotrimmatosilphiokaraomelitokatakechymenokichlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptekephalliokinklopeleiolagoiosiraiobaphetraganopterygon Lopadotemakhoselakhogameokranioleipsanodrimypotrimmatosilphiokarabomelitokatakekhymenokikhlepikossyphophattoperisteralektryonoptokephalliokigklopeleiolagōiosiraiobaphētraganopterýgōn isn’t mentioned in the performance.

Longest Words in English Top 14:

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• Longest Word in English No. 2
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• Longest Word in English No. 5
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• Longest Word in English No. 14

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