The longest word in the history of language.

[Kee715]

Is the chemical name of Titin.

I was going to post the word itself, but the text field only allows 60,000 characters and the word has over 180,000, so a link shall have to suffice:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titin
http://www.oddee.com/contrib_3357.aspx

[Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar]

Oh man, denied by your own link:

However, professional dictionary writers regard generic names of chemical compounds as verbal formulae rather than English words.

[bobby 55]

I hope I never have to give it's full name in a pop quizz. 'That stuff that starts with M' won't win a prize.

[Grammatolatry]

Stupid is the person who came up with that name. Imagine dropping that bomb in a conversation:

"Johnson! Have a look at the levels of Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyltyrosylglutamylserylleucylphenylalanylalanylgl...."

Eh, it repeats segments!

[justanotherfan]

That's just intentionally hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian.

[bobby 55]

OMG! Never criticise me for using four letter words again.

Now I have hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliaophobia and repetitive strain injury.

[Jaedar]

Stupid is the person who came up with that name. Imagine dropping that bomb in a conversation:

Noone came up with the name, someone came up with the rules for naming organic chemicals and then you follow those rules. So for large atoms, you get large names. It isn't stupid, it's informative: if you read the name you can draw the molecule.

[DDL]

Well..a linear representation of it, at least.

Proteins (of which titin is one) are composed of a linear sequence of amino acids: there are twenty possible amino acids (more or less), and so the "sequence" of a protein is the list of which amino acids are where, starting from the N-terminus (the amino bit right at the front) and ending at the C-terminus (the carboxylic acid bit at the back).

You COULD, of course, list each amino acid by fucking name, if you were an idiot, which is what

"Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyltyrosylglutamylserylleucylphenylalanylalanyl.." is doing.

But you'd more likely simply write that as

MetThrThrGlnArgTyrGluSerLeuPheAla..

or (even more likely)

MTTQRYESLFA..

And besides, if that really counted as a word, I could simply make a longer name by ..well, sticking a phosphate on the end of the protein, and calling that "phospho-<insert long name here>".

Anyway, all that gives you is the linear "primary" sequence of amino acids: the actual molecule could be curled up into a ball, coiled round itself into a rope-like structure, folded repeatedly on itself into stacked sheets, or any number of other structures, and the name doesn't tell you anything about that. And in fact, there is no current way to calculate a final 3D "tertiary" structure from primary structure alone. It's one of the holy grails of biological science.

[YeomanTheCastle]

HOLY MUTHERFUCKING CRUSTY CHEESY CHOCOLATE BREAD!!

[PleegWat]

Stupid is the person who came up with that name. Imagine dropping that bomb in a conversation:

Noone came up with the name, someone came up with the rules for naming organic chemicals and then you follow those rules. So for large atoms, you get large names. It isn't stupid, it's informative: if you read the name you can draw the molecule.

Ehm, no. I'm not sure what the largest ever produced atom is at the moment, but it's something like Ununnillium. What you mean is that for large molecules you get large names.

[DDL]

Bit harsh: it's clear he knows what he's saying, just got muddled on atom vs molecule in one place.

Since he did kinda point out that "the name lets you draw the molecule", he knows what he's saying: as let's be honest, you're hardly going to have a tough job drawing an atom, no matter how large it is.

So being a teensy bit less condescending would be appropriate.


And for large molecules you CAN get large names. As noted in the links provided, you can also call this ludicrously long named molecule "titin"....which is short by any definition.

[Jonas]

Personally, I prefer Media Molecule!

...

Sorry, that's all I got. I'll be over here if you need me.

[bobby 55]

Unlike that word that's short and sweet.

[PleegWat]

DDL: Yeah, I get to harsh when I see an error...

[Jaedar]

DDL: Yeah, I get to harsh when I see an error...

Nice joke mate