Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis … how boy of 16 stole MP’s record for longest word
A SCHOOLBOY has made it into the record books by using the longest word ever spoken in the Commons.
Michael Bryan, 16, uttered the 45-letter word pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis – a form of lung disease – during a youth select committee meeting.
The word, which is the longest entry in the Oxford dictionary, is now also the longest to make it into the transcript of parliamentary debates, Hansard.
The previous record was held by 48-year-old Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, with 29 letters. He used the word floccinaucinihilipili-fication – the action or habit of estimating something as worthless – at Westminster, holding the record since 2012.
Michael, from Bournemouth, said of his record-breaking entry: ‘It’s a real word. It’s a lung disease which can be caused by being around volcanoes too much.’
He added that he used the word, which he described as ‘ridiculous’ during the debate on July 14, to highlight the ‘grave inconsistency’ in addressing health conditions. The pupil said physical problems were given priority over mental disorders. As well as serving on the committee, Michael is a trustee for children’s charity Plan International UK and a national junior champion at volleyball.
He has just won a scholarship to study six A-levels at the £11,000-a-term Canford School in Wimborne, Dorset and hopes to read history and politics at Oxford University before working in the civil service and becoming an MP.
The Oxford dictionary states that pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanokoniosis is ‘an invented long word said to mean a lung disease caused by inhaling very fine ash and sand dust’. It was first recorded in the 1930s after being coined by Everett M Smith, president of the National Puzzlers’ League.