supercalifragilisticexpial
Hello. Welcome to solsarin. This post is about “supercalifragilisticexpial“.
“Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” /ˌsuːpərˌkælɪˌfrædʒɪˌlɪstɪkˌɛkspiˌælɪˈdoʊʃəs/ (listen) is a song and single from the 1964 Disney musical film Mary Poppins. It was written by the Sherman Brothers, and sung by Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke.[1] It also appears in the 2004 stage show version. Because Mary Poppins was a period piece set in 1910, songs that sounded similar to songs of the period were wanted. The movie version finished at #36 in AFI’s 100 Years…100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.
Story context
The song occurs in the chalk-drawing outing animated sequence, just after Mary Poppins wins a horse race. Flush with her victory, she is immediately surrounded by reporters who pepper her with leading questions and comment that she probably is at a loss for words. Mary disagrees, suggesting that at least one word is appropriate for the situation, and begins the song.
What does supercalifragilisticexpialidocious mean?
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is a nonsensical word that is sometimes used to describe something as being great or extraordinary.
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is used especially by children and fans of Disney movies to describe something as being really good.
Outside of this use, this gigantic word is often cited as being one of the longest words in the English language. At 34 letters, it is longer than other mouthfuls, such as antidisestablishmentarianism and floccinaucinihilipilification. If you are a fan of these and other long words, take a look at our article “The Longest Words in the English Language.”
Example: My daughter loves our new puppy so much that she said it was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
The Real Origin of ‘Supercalifragilistic’
For many people, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and the 1964 movie Mary Poppins inextricably linked. Indeed, it was this movie that popularized the word. The songwriters, brothers Richard and Robert Sherman, have explained the word as originating in the same way they, like many others, used to make up humorously big, nonsensical words as children.
Remember when we used to make up the big double-talk words, we could make a big obnoxious word up for the kids and that’s where it started. “Obnoxious” an ugly word so we said “atrocious,” that’s very British. We started with “atrocious” and then you can sound smart and be precocious. We had “precocious” and “atrocious” and we wanted something super colossal and that’s corny, so we took “super” and did double-talk to get “califragilistic” which means nothing, it just came out that way.
Coincidentally, there also a song called Supercalafajalistickespeealadojus that was written in 1949, and the authors of the song brought a suit against the Sherman brothers for copyright infringement. In the end, the court decided in the Shermans’ favor because, among other things, affidavits were produced that claimed that variants of the word were known many years prior to 1949, making the plaintiffs’ claim unfounded.
1931
In fact, the earliest known written record of a variant is for supercaliflawjalisticexpialidoshus from an “A-muse-ings” column by Helen Herman in The Syracuse Daily Orange (Syracuse University), March 10, 1931. The columnist muses about her made-up word, describing it as including “all words in the category of something wonderful” and “though rather long and tiring before one reaches its conclusion, … once you arrive at the end, you have said in one word what it would ordinarily take four paragraphs to explain.”
The word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious in Mary Poppins is said to be simply a word used as “something to say when you have nothing to say,” but the mouthful of nonsensical syllables certainly has brought cheer to audiences for decades. That cheer has inspired people to use it, like Helen Herman used her word, for things that are extraordinarily good or wonderful.
People also began to use a shortened adjective form, supercalifragilistic, as well as the adverbial supercalifragilistically. These forms don’t appear often, but when they do, they mean something along the lines of “wonderful” or “amazing,”
2016
If Trump is going to start trade wars and raise tariffs, he should explain how his supercalifragilistic deals will both punish these countries and make goods cheaper for American consumers.
— David Harsanyi, Times Record News (Wichita Falls, Texas), 12 Mar. 2016
For a real good time, just tell your parents to take you to any one of the supercalifragilistically spectacular places listed below.
— Key, 7 Feb. 1987
Finally, what of the claim made in Mary Poppins that saying the word loud enough will cause the speaker to sound precocious? We do not have sufficient evidence to support that conclusion at this time.
Our New Supercalifragalisticexpiali Christmas Jumper might sound quite atrocious, but if you wear it long enough, you’ll look quite precocious!
Our new Christmas Jumpers are ‘practically perfect in every way! (LOL)
Text reads: Supercalifragalisticexpiali Christmas
Approximate Sweatshirt Armpit Measurements
XS – 40″ (6-8) S – 42″ (8-10) M – 44″ (12-14) L – 48″ (14-16) XL – 50″ (18) XXL – 54″ (20)
Holly is a size 8 and wears the Small.
These unisex sweaters have an oversized, relaxed fit, if you are looking for a more fitted style, please select the size down.
Colours: Choose From Red Coloured Jumpers with White and Gold Coloured Text
FAIRWEAR: We proud that all our sweatshirts approved by the fairwear foundation and made from ethically sourced cotton
(Fabric 80% Cotton, 20% polyester) Oeko-Tex Certified.
Designed and printed with Love and Sass in Manchester, UK xx
Super gonorrhea! Supercalifragilisticexpiali…what?
I Boost Immunity launched a new campaign for World Antibiotic Awareness Week in partnership with the BC Centre for Disease Control’s Community Antimicrobial Stewardship team. Take the quiz and I Boost Immunity will donate a vaccine to a child in need through UNICEF Canada.
I Boost Immunity is a Canadian-based online grassroots immunization advocacy program with the goal to educate and empower the people who are pro-vaccination by providing a safe platform to discuss ideas, fact based research, and the latest immunization news. Vaccines donated for every correct quiz, for articles or stories shared through social networks, and personal stories shared about why immunization matters to you.
Each November, World Antibiotic Awareness Week aims to increase global awareness of antibiotic resistance and to encourage best practices among the general public, health workers and policy makers to avoid the further emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance.
You’ve probably heard of gonorrhea – a common sexually transmitted infection (STI) caused by the bacteria Neisseria gonorrhoeae. What you probably don’t know is that we’ve been waging a war against gonorrhea for a very long time and that gonorrhea has powered up recently, becoming SUPER GONORRHEA.
Person’s genitals, anus, throat, or eyes
Gonorrhea infection has been around since medieval times. It’s flat-out unpleasant. Infections can occur on a person’s genitals, anus, throat, or eyes.
Here’s a quick rundown of just some of the symptoms of gonorrhea (keep in mind, some people with gonorrhea don’t have any symptoms but can still pass the infection to others.) You might notice a pattern…
- Painful or itchy sensation to genitals, with abnormal discharge.
- Pain or trouble with urinating.
- Painful and swollen testicles.
- Pain during sex.
…did we say pain?
If gonorrhea left untreated, it can cause serious health problems, such as chronic pelvic pain, infertility, and an increased risk of HIV.
You can start to imagine why people in the 1800s and early 1900s tried to treat gonorrhea with mercury, silver nitrate, and even arsenic (not that it was successful). Desperate times call for desperate measures?
Fortunately, gonorrhea can treated with antibiotics and doesn’t cause any health problems if treated right away. All seemed well in our fight against gonorrhea up until about the 1980s…
After last week’s article “Supercalifragilistic, TargetScrewed this Chat Up” I had an offline conversation about the piece with several people who were “in the know” about Target. This post references that discussion but I’m not sharing the specifics of that discussion in the interest of those involved.
From the 26th
I do try to be fair, thorough and detailed in my writing. It pointed out to me that, in my analysis, I missed a few key and what should have been obvious links to the Target.com landing page for National Princess Week. Gaining access to those links may have altered the experience I had somewhat, so I felt it was necessary to follow up quickly with a few notes about this.
Wall Posts: I did not see an obvious link to a page or area explaining what National Princess Week was on the immediate Facebook posts from the 26th. My first place to find a link to Princess Week was scanning Target’s Facebook wall and post comments. I read through two large posts with Julie’s picture with links to the chat and expanded the comment fields. There was another post that linked to Princess Bedding, a princess survey and a princess name generator post.
Sufficed to say, I didn’t look at all of the week’s earlier posts, and it would have been right to do so. There were a few links to the landing page before May 26th.
Thank you for staying with this post “supercalifragilisticexpial” until the end.
