Word of the Day: Try This at Home!

Since I've already outed myself as a nerd, I really shouldn't worry about exposing the depths of my nerdiness. Nevertheless, I hesitate to share the fact that I do subscribe to the Word of the Day listserv. Today's word is particularly lovely so I'll just have to bite the nerdy bullet. Honorificabilitudinity (ON-uh-rif-i-kay-bi-li-too-DIN-i-tee-), a noun meaning Honorableness. [From Medieval Latin honorificabilitudinitas, from Latin honor.] Another form of this, honorificabilitudinitatibus (27 letters), is the longest word Shakespeare ever used. It comes out of the mouth of Costard, the clown, in Love's Labour's Lost: "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." Use it in a sentence-- I double dog dare you.