We know you’ve grown up believing ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ is the longest word in the English language, even though it isn’t. That’s because at 45 letters, ‘Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis’ takes the cake and it’s hard to imagine Mary Poppins singing about lung disease.
In other childhood breaking news, the catchy Sherman Brothers’ composition for ‘Mary Poppins (1964)’ was the subject of a multimillion dollar lawsuit. Disney was sued for copyright infringement of a 1940s song, bearing a suspiciously similar title – ‘Supercalafajalistickespeealadojus’. To which Richard Sherman had this to say, “As God is my witness, I never heard of that song”. Good on you for holding your ground there, Richard!
The case was dismissed after a variation of the word was cited in a 1930s publication and ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ went on to make its first appearance in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1986. You see, up until then, it wasn’t even a real word! And all of that for what the film describes as “something to say when you have nothing to say”. Well, we have to say… supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!