Etymology

honorificabilitudinitas (Mussatus, c1300 in Du Cange), an extension of honorificabilitudo, honourableness (in a charter of 1187, Du Cange), itself from honorificabilis honourable.

Usage notes

This word is an example of a hapax legomenon, occurring in Shakespeare's works only in Act V, Scene I of Love's Labour's Lost (and only very rarely in the works of other authors).

Quotations

• William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, act V, scene i

  O, they have lived long on the alms-basket of words.

  I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word;

  for thou art not so long by the head as

  honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier

  swallowed than a flap-dragon.

Trivia

Honorificabilitudinitatibus is a logologically pleasing word for several reasons:

• It is the longest word coined by Shakespeare.
• It alternates consonants and vowels throughout, the longest English word to do so.
• Despite its length, it does not contain a single "e", making it the second-longest (behind floccinaucinihilipilification) to do so.