Rindfleischetikettierungs-überwachungsaufgaben-übertragungsgesetz

By William Germano. Sad news from Germany: the British Telegraph reported this week that the Germans are decommissioning what seems to have been the language’s longest word, the little mouthful that is the title of my post today. The term, which the Telegraph translates as “law delegating beef label monitoring,” apparently arose during the 1990s in response to bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Spawned by a crisis, the R-word may now be the first linguistic fatality attributable to mad cow disease. Read more...