[‘ Honourableness.']
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˌɒnəˌrɪfᵻkəˌbɪlᵻtjuːˈdɪnᵻti/, U.S. /ˌɑnəˌrɪfᵻkəˌbɪlᵻt(j)uˈdɪnᵻdi/
Etymology: < post-classical Latin /honorificabilitudinitas/ honourableness (13th cent. in British and continental sources) < /honorificabilitudin-, /honorificabilitudo honourableness (in a charter of 1187 in Du Cange; < /honorificabilis/ honourable (7th cent.; < /honorificare/ honorify v. + classical Latin /-bilis/ -ble suffix) + classical Latin /-tūdō/ -tude suffix) + classical Latin /-itās/ -ity suffix.
In a number of texts from the 16th and 17th centuries the Latin ablative plural honorificabilitudinitatibus is cited as an example of a very long word: compare Complaynt of Scotland (1548–9), Prolog. lf. 14 b, Shakespeare Love’s Labours Lost (1598) v. i. 41 (see quot. 1598 at head n.1 1b(a)), and Marston Dutch Courtezan (1605) v. H. The Latin form honorificabilitudinitate (ablative singular) is similarly mentioned in Dante De Vulgari Eloquentia (/c/1305) ii. vii.
Compare the following example of the Latin word in an English context:
1599 T. Nashe /Lenten Stuffe/ 24 Physitions deafen our eares with the Honorificabilitudinitatibus of their heauenly Panachæa their soueraigne Guiacum.
Honourableness.
Now rare in regular usage, but freq. cited as an example of an unusually long word, or (incorrectly) as the longest word in the English language. Sometimes with reference to Shakespeare’s use of the Latin word (see etymology).
1656 T. Blount /Glossographia/, /Honorificabilitudinity/, honorableness. [Also in later dictionaries].
1785 T. Holcroft /Choleric Fathers/ ii. 38 This vast honorificabilitudinity Commands my esteem!
1800 in /Spirit of Public Jrnls./ (1801) *4* 147 The two longest monosyllables in our language are strength and straight, and the very longest word, honorificabilitudinity.
1823 J. Lunn /Horæ Jocosæ/ 43 No honorificabilitudinity Or wealth could suffice To content her.
1908 /Denver Med. Times & Utah Med. Jrnl./ Jan. 345 Long words (of which the longest is honorificabilitudinity, latinized by Shakespeare).
2005 /Province (Vancouver, Brit. Columbia)/ (Nexis) 15 Mar. a20 Students might consider the old-fashioned spelling bee as nothing more than floccinaucinihilipilification. Well, we see it more as an act of honorificabilitudinity.