Grammar Moses: My 2 cents on 10-dollar words

When I was a lad, I thought "antidisestablishmentarianism" was the longest English word. I would wow people - or thought I wowed people - when I shared this tidbit with them in what must have been a series of random encounters.

I was impressed that it contains more letters than there are in the alphabet.

Of course, we didn't have the internet then, so I figured that out by READING THE DICTIONARY.

I was a precocious and voracious reader. I think I might have just gotten bored midway through the A's and figured that word was long enough for me.

Reader Beth Todas ruptured my long-held belief by sharing with me a podcast from a trio of Merriam-Webster lexicographers.

In it, they talk on the subject of the longest word in their unabridged dictionary. It is - take a deep breath - "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis."

Now I've seen William Faulkner carry a paragraph over several pages, but I've never seen a word that required two whole lines of type.

Nineteen syllables, 45 letters.

Good thing it isn't a synonym for something as ubiquitous as "bread" or "Ryan Seacrest."

No, it is a chronic lung disease caused by the inhalation of fine silicate or quartz dust.

Imagine trying to decipher a doctor's scrawl of that.

I was so enchanted by the podcast that I listened to the whole thing and picked up a couple more tidbits.

The longest English word that does not duplicate any letters isn't nearly as long as you might think: "uncopyrightable."

And the word that includes all of the vowels in order?

"Facetiously."

I'm, er, serious about that.

What's the fun in that?

Former middle school English teacher Amy Medved had two questions for me: "Would you please address the misuse of 'fewer and less' that is so rampant today ...; and could you explain to me just what part of speech the word 'fun' is? It sounds so wrong to me to hear, 'It was a fun party' or that something was 'so fun.'"

"Fun" is a flexible word and as fun as Silly Putty. It isn't limited to one part of speech but three.

It can be a noun: "We had fun yesterday, didn't we?"

It can be an adjective: "We had a fun time yesterday, didn't we?"

Or it can be a verb. And I'm not funning you about that.

As for "fewer" and "less," it's a matter of whether the noun you're talking about is a countable or uncountable one.

You have less time on your hands and less peace in your house when your kids are learning remotely.

You use less gasoline when you eschew the snowblower and shovel the driveway.

But you have fewer marbles when you lose them, you have fewer opportunities when you squander them and fewer pairs of shoes in your closet after Marie Kondo stops by.

Write carefully!

• Jim Baumann is vice president/managing editor of the Daily Herald. Write him at jbaumann@dailyherald.com. Put Grammar Moses in the subject line. You also can friend or follow Jim at facebook.com/baumannjim.