Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Trivia: honorificabilitudinitatibus

In Love's Labours Lost, Shakespeare uses the longest word in any work of English literature: HONORIFICABILITUDINITATIBUS. What does it mean?

The word "honorificabilitudinitatibus" is the dative singular conjugation of a real medieval Latin word. Dante actually used it more than once, as did other writers of the period. A translation of it would be "the state of being able to achieve honors."

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