• Question: how do you get PNEUMONO­ULTRA­MICRO­SCOPIC­SILICO­VOLCANO­CONIOSIS?

    Asked by brobdingnagian to Damien, Rachael, Simon, Suzi, Tim on 16 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Suzi Gage

      Suzi Gage answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Hah, there’s an obsession with this word.

      Are you guys trying to trip us up??
      I assume you get it from breathing in the air near volcanoes 🙂

    • Photo: Damien Hall

      Damien Hall answered on 16 Jun 2011:

      I reckon Suzi’s about right.

      Here’s what I wrote to @dalvindk about what I think(!) it means:

      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?

Comments

  • Photo: crazy

    crazy commented on :

    how do u even pronounce that word

  • Photo: Suzi

    Suzi commented on :

    @crazy – good question
    I reckon
    noo-mo ul tra my crow sco pic sili co volcano coh- nee oh sis
    ??

  • Photo: Damien

    Damien commented on :

    I reckon Suzi’s right, except in my accent the first syllable would be new, not noo.

  • Photo: Suzi

    Suzi commented on :

    Once a linguist, always a linguist 🙂

  • Photo: Damien

    Damien commented on :

    Oh no – I tried to mouse over the ‘Like’ thumb to see who’d ‘liked’ my comment, and I ended up ‘liking’ it myself! Now that looks awful.

    But, yeah, it’s always on! I love it, though. That’s exactly why I became a linguistic scientist. If you follow me on Twitter for long enough you’ll see stuff about strange linguistic things I have noticed. Suzi already follows me (which I hope will last after IAS!), but anyone’s welcome, so join us too, crazy, if you’re on Twitter!

    Suzi, I was going to ask whether you were from the West Country, but I see from your profile that you’re there now but were brought up in Buckinghamshire. Noo- for pneu- is something I’d expect to hear from someone from the West Country (or East Anglia). Maybe you first heard lots of scientific words with pneu- when you’d got to Bristol?

    See, you can do linguistic science any time, and it doesn’t have to be complicated!

    🙂

  • Photo: Suzi

    Suzi commented on :

    @Damien You’re right, I’m not from the West Country, but I do find myself talking with a twang on occasions…uh-oh!