Honorificabilitudinitatibus

Good evening, Kathy. It’s Tuesday.

Bless you!!
What?
Bless you!!
No, no. I said  honorificabilitudinitatibus.

I decided that I was going to pick the longest word in the English language and write an acrostic poem from it. I chose the word honorificabilitudinitatibus. It is not technically the longest word, however, many of the words that are longer are technical or chemistry terms, which didn’t really meet the nature of this exercise.

However, while doing some research, I discovered fascinating things about this word. Honorificabilitudinitatibus has various meanings, all of them having something to do with honor or being honorable. It appears in a Shakespeare play only once (Love’s Labour’s Lost). Adherents to the Baconian theory believe that it is actually an anagram for “these plays, F. Bacon’s offspring, are preserved for the world”, supporting the theory that the real identity of Shakespeare was Sir Francis Bacon. However, many others have pointed out that since the word contains so many letters  honorificabilitudinitatibus can be anagramed as many things and that this particular anagram doesn’t prove anything at all. This word has also been cropping up all over the place since the 8th century, in various languages, further weakening the Baconian argument for an anagraming ghost writer.

Honorificabilitudinitatibus
How onerous not,
one’s ridiculed integrity.
For I can always be innocent,
lauded in the undying dignity
inherent now inside the affected,
to ignite beautiful unsung stature.