英語學(xué)習(xí)：最長的英文單詞解析

　　PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICOVOLCANOCONIOSIS

　　矽肺病

　　At 45 letters, this is the longest word you’ll find in a major dictionary. An inflated version of silicosis, this is the full scientific name for a disease that causes inflammation in the lungs owing to the inhalation of very fine silica dust. Despite its inclusion in the dictionary, it’s generally considered superfluous, having been coined simply to claim the title of the longest English word.

　　矽肺病的英文名有45個(gè)字母，是主流字典中收錄的最長單詞。這是矽肺病的英文學(xué)名全稱，silicosis(矽肺病)的“加長版”。矽肺病是一種因?yàn)槲爰?xì)微矽塵導(dǎo)致肺部發(fā)炎的疾病。盡管這個(gè)單詞被收入字典，但一般來說，人們認(rèn)為這個(gè)名稱多此一舉，是為了獲得最長英語單詞的頭銜而杜撰的。

　　METHIONYLTHREONYLTHREONYGLUTAMINYLARGINYL … ISOLEUCINE

　　肌聯(lián)蛋白

　　Note the ellipses. All told, the full chemical name for the human protein titin is 189,819 letters, and takes about three-and-a-half hours to pronounce. The problem with including chemical names is that there’s essentially no limit to how long they can be. For example, naming a single strand of DNA, with its millions and millions of repeating base pairs, could eventually tab out at well over 1 billion letters.

　　注意此處的省略號(hào)。人體肌聯(lián)蛋白的完整化學(xué)名稱總共有189819個(gè)字母，十八萬九千八百一十九個(gè)!對(duì)，你沒看錯(cuò)，就是189819個(gè)字母!讀完需要三個(gè)半小時(shí)。

　　這么坑爹的單詞是怎么誕生的?這就要從IUPAC命名法說起了。把化學(xué)名稱列出來的問題是，其長度基本上沒有限制。例如，根據(jù)一串DNA所包含的數(shù)百萬重復(fù)堿基對(duì)為其命名，最終取出來的名字可能超過10億個(gè)字母。

　　這個(gè)世界上有一個(gè)名叫International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry(國際純粹與應(yīng)用化學(xué)聯(lián)合會(huì))的組織，它最有名的工作就是定義化學(xué)等領(lǐng)域的專有名詞。它出過一本“藍(lán)寶書”(你沒看錯(cuò)，它的外號(hào)就是The Blue Book)IUPAC Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry，也就是《IUPAC有機(jī)化學(xué)命名法》。

　　LOPADOTEMACHOSELACHOGALEOKRANIOLEIPSAN …P TERYGON

　　大亂燉

　　The longest word ever to appear in literature comes from Aristophanes’ play, Assemblywomen, published in 391 BC. The Greek word tallies 171 letters, but translates to 183 in English. This mouthful refers to a fictional fricassee comprised of rotted dogfish head, wrasse, wood pigeon, and the roasted head of a dabchick, among other culinary morsels.

　　文學(xué)作品中的最長單詞出自阿里斯多芬尼斯于公元前391年發(fā)表的劇作《女議員》。這個(gè)希臘單詞有171個(gè)字母，翻譯成英文單詞后變?yōu)?83個(gè)字母。這個(gè)冗長而拗口的單詞指的是一道虛構(gòu)的大燉菜，包含了腐爛的狗鯊頭、隆頭魚、斑尾林鴿以及烤小䴙䴘頭和其他烹飪食物。

　　【(公眾號(hào)：GDUTCEO)】

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