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Analysis of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Initial findings:

SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS (34 letters) from the movie Mary Poppins is not the longest word in English, although many people believe it is. In fact pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis is (45 letters).

The word Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is in the Oxford English Dictionary, which has the following as the first four citations:

  • 1949 Parker & Young (unpublished song-title) Supercalafajalistickespialadojus.
  • 1951 Parker & Young (song-title) Supercalafajalistickespeealadojus; or, The super song.
  • 1964 R. M. & R. B; Sherman (song-title) Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
  • 1967 Decisions U.S. Courts involving Copyright 1965-66 488 The complaint alleges copyright infringement of plaintiff’s song `Supercalafajalistickespeealadojus’ by defendants’ song ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.’ (All variants of this tongue twister will hereinafter be referred to collectively as ‘the word’.)

(The definition says Disney won, “in view of earlier oral uses of the word sworn to in affidavits” and because they wrote the rest of the song themselves.)

All 34 letters of this word were made up for the movie, Mary Poppins, by a writing team of two brothers, Bob and Dick Sherman. Their most famous song is “It’s a Small World,” which they wrote for the World’s Fair in New York in 1964. You can hear it on the ride of the same name at Disneyland. The Shermans wrote all the songs for Mary Poppins, including “A Spoonful of Sugar,” “Feed the Birds” and “Chim Chim Cher-ee.” “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” means nothing, really. It is a very long nonsense word that is made up to sound like you are terribly smart and “You’ll always sound precocious.”

Now we use it to mean that something is fantastic or super-fabulous.

The Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious song lyrics from the “Mary Poppins” movie are as follows:

Mary Poppins:

Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay

Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay

It's…

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Even though the sound of it

Is something quite atrocious

If you say it loud enough

You’ll always sound precocious

All:

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay

Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay!

Bert:

Because I was afraid to speak

When I was just a lad

My father gave me nose a tweak

And told me I was bad

But then one day I learned a word

That saved me achin’ nose

Bert, Mary Poppins and Chorus:

The biggest word I ever heard

And this is how it goes: Oh!

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Even though the sound of it

Is something quite atrocious

If you say it loud enough

You’ll always sound precocious

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay

Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay!

Mary Poppins:

He traveled all around the world

And everywhere he went

He’d use his word and all would say

“There goes a clever gent”

Bert:

When Dukes and maharajas

Pass the time of day with me

I say me special word and then

They ask me out to tea

Bert, Mary Poppins and Chorus:

Oh..

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Even though the sound of it

Is something quite atrocious

If you say it loud enough

You’ll always sound precocious

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay

Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay!

Mary Poppins:

So when the cat has got your tongue

There’s no need for dismay

Just summon up this word

And then you’ve got a lot to say

But better use it carefully

Or it could change your life

The Perlie:

One night I said it to me girl

And now me girl’s my wife!

Acording to googlism.com:

What is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is in the oxford english dictionary

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is aided prominently by that chorus of kids

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is too a word

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is not the longest word in the english language

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is the correct spelling of this word

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is a big word

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is spelled like this

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is pretty good

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is also the title to the song

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is harder than 90% of the tunes in ddr konamix

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is a very long word

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supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is going to be a bitch to search for

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

is a song title from the movie Mary Poppins. It is one of the longest proper nouns ever made (see Longest word in the English language).

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

– A memorable nonsense word from the movie Mary Poppins (Walt Disney Studios, released 1964), and also the title from a song in the movie.

Further analasys:

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious can be split up in a number of ways, we chose this: “Super”, “Cali”, “Fragilistic”, “Expialidocious”.

Super…

– Higher than another in rank, station, or authority: a superior officer.

– Of a higher nature or kind.

– Of great value or excellence; extraordinary.

– Greater in number or amount than another: an army defeated by superior numbers of enemy troops.

– Affecting an attitude of disdain or conceit; haughty and supercilious.

– Above being affected or influenced; indifferent or immune: “Trust magnates were superior to law” (Gustavus Myers).

– Located higher than another; upper.

Analysis so far: Super meaning Superior, ie: Superior Officer.

Cali… This could mean 1 of 3 things…

– A city of western Colombia on the Cali River southwest of Bogotá. It was founded in 1536. Population: 1,369,331.

– (Hindoo Myth.) The tenth avatar or incarnation of the god Vishnu. [Written also Kali.]

– Abbreviation for California

Analysis so far: A Californian Superior Officer.

Fragilistic:

I still haven’t worked this one out entirly, but we were thinking its to do with multiplayer games or more feasably to do with killing, deriving from the word “Frag”

– A fragmentation grenade.

– To wound or kill (a fellow soldier) by throwing a grenade or similar explosive

at the victim: “He got fragged. Blown away” (Bobbie Ann Mason).

– [from Vietnam-era U.S. military slang via the games Doom and Quake] 1. To kill another player’s avatar in a multiuser game. “I hold the office Quake record with 40 frags.” 2. To completely ruin something. “Forget that power supply, the lightning strike fragged it.

Analysis so far: A Californian Superior Officer killed or wounded.

Expialidocious:

The hardest one yet, still little understanding of what this word means, or even what it could derive from.

Dictionary.com returned the following for “expialidocious“:

Did you mean exploits?

Suggestions:

exploits

explodes

Keeping with the theme of “Fragilistic” I realised that “Expialidocious” must have something to do with “explodes”.

Final Summary

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious actually means:

A Californian Superior Officer exploded by a fragmentation grenade.

In conclusison:

The Mary Poppins movie, Walt Disney and Bob and Dick Sherman arn’t as innocent as we first perceived and that maybe as the song so rightly says “the sound of it is something quite atrocious.” is actually closer to the truth than you think.

NOTE: I can’t remember where I got *all* the information from, but I am sure if you just use google you’ll be able to find it.

Additional note: This is part parody, part drunk talk. Not to be taken seriously or literally.

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