Word Stories: antidisestablishmentarianism

February 23, 2015 10:00

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Steve Taylore-Knowles looks at the stories behind the English language.

Although the OED contains both pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (a lung disease) and floccipaucinihilipilification (the act of estimating as worthless), antidisestablishmentarianism is probably the longest word that most people know, and the longest that seems to consist of more or less everyday English elements, rather than Latin elements. Behind it is a debate that still rumbles on concerning the relationship between the church and state, particularly in England.

The Latin verb stare (to stand), combined with the nominative adjectival suffix -bilis (tending to, able to) produced the form stabilis (stable), which in Old French was stable or estable. The verb establir (make stable, establish) had the extended root establiss- (establissant, establissent, etc), which in English became establish. The same process can be seen in words like finish, furnish and punish. The addition of the suffix -ment (indicating the result of an action, derived from the Latin -mentum) in Old French produced establissement and in English establishment.

From the 16th century on, establish had as one of its meanings ‘to set up, bring about permanently’, and established came to be applied specifically to the national, state church, with the monarch as its head. By the mid-19th century, people of various political and religious persuasions were uneasy about the idea of such a close relationship between church and state and disestablishment (dis- coming via Latin from the Greek δίς twice, with the main meaning of ‘splitting in two’) of the church was a matter of some debate. In fact, the Churches of Ireland and of Wales were disestablished in 1871 and 1920, respectively. Those who believed in disestablishment were disestablishmentarians (the suffix -arian being formed from the Latin roots -arius, ‘a man belonging to or engaged in’, and -an, ‘of or belonging to’). In other words, they were people whose philosophy might be termed disestablishmentarianism (formed using the Greek root -ισμός). The opposing school of thought, formed using the Greek αντι- (against) is, naturally enough, antidisestablishmentarianism.

Greece, of course, has the Eastern Orthodox church as its established church, as does Cyprus. Which is the only other country to have Eastern Orthodoxy as the official state-recognised religion? Yes, of course. I know I’ll have to try harder than that to catch out my faithful and highly-educated readership. Finland is the correct answer.

If there are any aspects of English words you've always wondered about, drop me a line at [email protected] and I'll see if I can come up with an answer.

Тема: Grammar & Vocabulary Теги: Wordstory, Etymology

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