Honorificabilitudinitatibus

Honorificabilitudinitatibus [Hono-rifica-bili-tudi-nita-tibus] is a word used by Costard in act five, scene one of William Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost". It is (in the quotation) the ablative plural of the medieval Latin word honorificabilitudinitas, which can be translated as "the state of being able to achieve honours." Appearing only once in Shakespeare's works, it is a hapax legomenon.

The word has been used by adherents of the Baconian theory—who believe Shakespeare's plays were written by Francis Bacon—as an anagram for "hi ludi, F. Baconis nati, tuiti orbi", Latin for "these plays, F. Bacon's offspring, are preserved for the world".

Parodying this, John Sladek demonstrated in the 1970s that the word could also be anagrammatized as "I, B. Ionsonii, uurit ["writ"] a lift'd batch", thus "proving" that Shakespeare's works were written by Ben Jonson. (The two u's, rendered as v's in the original literation, are put together to form - literally - a w, as was common practice in Shakespeare's day.)

The word, however, was used long before Shakespeare used it in "Love's Labour's Lost". "Honorificabilitudo" appears in a Latin charter of 1187, and occurs as "honorificabilitudinitas" in 1300. Dante cites "honorificabilitudinitate" as a typical example of a long word in "De Vulgari Eloquentia" II. vii. It also occurs in "The Complaynt of Scotland", and in Marston's "Dutch Courtezan" (1605).

The earliest use listed in the Oxford English Dictionary is 1599, by Nashe: "Physitions deafen our eares with the Honorificabilitudinitatibus of their heauenly Panachaea, their soueraign Guiacum."

James Joyce also used this word in his mammoth novel "Ulysses", during the Scylla and Charybdis episode when Stephen Dedalus articulates his interpretation of "Hamlet".

The cartoon "Pinky and the Brain" also defined honorificabilitudinitatibus during the credits of the episode "Napoleon Braineparte", in their tradition of defining long, obscure words such as this one.

Similarly, it features in the "Guide to: Sick Days and Spelling Bees" episode of "Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide".

Honorificabilitudinitatibus is the longest word in the English language featuring alternating consonants and vowels.

Quotation

*"O, they have lived long on the alms-basket of words.
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." - Costard, "Love's Labour's Lost", Act V, Scene 1

ee also

*Longest word in English