• Question: do you know what pneumonoultramicroscopicvolcanoconosis means without usisng a dictionary ?

    Asked by dalvindk to Damien, Rachael, Simon, Suzi, Tim on 16 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by jimmyv.
    • Photo: Suzi Gage

      Suzi Gage answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hmm, I’m not sure it means anything (and I didn’t study latin)
      but pnuemo refers to the lungs
      microscopic – tiny
      volcano, well obvious.
      sis tends to refer to a disorder or diease.

      So lung disease from tiny volcanoes??? 🙂

    • Photo: Simon Bennett

      Simon Bennett answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hello,

      My guess woulds be something that erupts, to do with air and is very small.

      Thanks.

    • Photo: Rachael Ward

      Rachael Ward answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      No idea!

      Like the others, I can kind of guess its a disease or syndrome (osis) to do with very small things (ultramicroscopic) and the lungs so maybe breathing in something toxic?

      Did you know without looking it up?

    • Photo: Damien Hall

      Damien Hall answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      I don’t know what that means, but the great thing about linguistics (well, one of them) is that I can get close to it by looking at the letters and syllables in the word!

      pneumono – : from Ancient Greek, I can tell that this has something to do with air, or breath, or the lungs probably

      ultramicroscopic: obvious? Something to do with very, very small things – particles?

      Volcano- : maybe means the particles are particles of volcanic ash?

      -osis: usually words that end in –osis are diseases.

      So I would guess that this is some lung disease that has to do with tiny particles of ash getting into your lungs. Is that right?

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