Enough is enough!

[BJCooperIT]

I receive a daily "Word of the Day" email from the Merriam Webster web site. Today's word is:

Hemidemisemiquaver \hem-ih-dem-ih-SEM-ih-kway-ver\ noun

a musical note with the time value of 1/64 of a whole note : sixty-fourth note

Semiquaver, I understand. Demisemiquaver, maybe. But hemidemisemiquaver is prefix overkill!

Can you think of any other examples?

^{Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance. ~George Bernard Shaw}
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[kjv1611]

Sounds almost like:

Supercalafragalisticexpealidosious

Or that really long name of a town on the other side of the pond from where I'm at - I forget, but it's one Santa's mentioned around here a time or two.



--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[sleipnir214]

There is the contrived example that is my favorite unit of measure of speed, the attoparsec per microfortnight.

It works out pretty close to an inch per second



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[RodKnowlton]

Hemidemisemiquaver is a familiar word for all of us that were in band in school.

What I love about it is that "hemi-", "demi-", and "semi-" all mean "half".

Apparently an eighth note was once called a quaver, and someone was tired of making up whole new names for shorter notes. So a 64th note is half of a half of a half of an eighth note.

- Rod


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[flapeyre]

We have a radio host here that declares his station to be broadcasting with "five quadrillion picowatts" (translation: 5 KW) of effective radiated power.

Tibi gratias agimus quod nihil fumas.

 

[AnotherHiggins]

I don't remember that word (), and I was in school bands from 6th grade through college. Not only was I in band, but I'm a drummer - one who is very familiar with reading rhythm.

What's wrong with "64th note"?

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[SantaMufasa]

...prefix overkill! Can you think of any other examples?

Actually, yes..."

http://WWW."

Have you ever noticed that there are three times as many syllables in the abbreviation of the World-Wide Web as in the actual words?

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
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[karluk]

That word reminds me of "floccinaucinihilipilification", which is derived from four different Latin words meaning "nothing". But that word is intentionally longer than necessary, whereas all the prefixes in "Hemidemisemiquaver" actually mean something.

 

[flapeyre]

The musical termn hemidemisemiquaver and its other formas are chiefly British usage. In the US, we use the fractional values of a whole note.

Tibi gratias agimus quod nihil fumas.

 

[pinkgecko]

I'll take 64th note over Hemidemisemiquaver any day.

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[AnotherHiggins]

Thanks, flapeyre. That explains why I'm not familiar with it.

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[Thadeus]

Just waiting for music to go metric...

 

[CajunCenturion]

Music is already full of meter.

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[philhege]

Edwin Gordon is not amused.

Phil Hegedusich
Senior Programmer/Analyst
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-----------
Not NULL-terminated yet.

 

[SF0751]

But Victor Borge is.

Susan
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work." - Thomas A. Edison

 

[philhege]

And so, for that matter, is Spike Jones.

 

[cjelec]

kjv1611,

The town is in Wales (where I live), and is called:
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

Its a great name to try and say when you have had a few, or even when you have had none

 

[p5wizard]

I'm wondering, does anyone actually type in this website's URL?

http://www.llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.co.uk

p5

HTH,

p5wizard

 

[Lunatic]

According to the Christian Science Monitor Gorsafawddachaidraigddanheddogled dollonpenrhynareurdraethceredigion changed its name just to spite Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrob wllllantysiliogogogoch. So now Gor is ahead 67 letters to 58.

However Bangkok has the longest name (at least if you take its poetic name):
Krung thep mahanakhon bovorn ratanakosin mahintharayutthaya mahadilok pop noparatratchathani burirom udomratchanivetmahasathan amornpiman avatarnsathit sakkathattiyavisnukarmprasit weighs in at a whopping 167 letters, nearly double that of its nearest rival:

Taumatawhakatangihangak oauauotamateaturipukaka pikimaungahoronukupokaiwhe nua kitanatahu (85 letters), which is actually a hill apparently.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0320/p14s01-lign.html

Of course, this is all the English translation...

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[RodKnowlton]

I'm wondering, does anyone actually type in this website's URL?

One person did.

Once.

After that, it's been nothing but cut and paste.

(Assuming they didn't use OCR in the first place, which would probably have been more trouble than typing it).

- Rod


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