Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft
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The (German: Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft (help·info) (English: Association for subordinate officials of the head office management of the Danube steamboat electrical services) was a suborganization of the Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft (DDSG) in pre-war Vienna, Austria, a shipping company for transporting passengers and cargo on the Danube. The DDSG still exists today in the form of the now private companies DDSG-Blue Danube Schiffahrt GmbH (passenger transport) and the DDSG-Cargo GmbH.
The name is an example of the virtually unlimited compounding of nouns that is possible in many Germanic languages; with 79 letters, according to the 1996 Guinness Book of World Records, it is the longest word published in the German language.
Extraordinarily long words are used sparsely in German conversation, but somewhat more often than in English. Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän was a correct address for the captain of a pre-World War I steamboat ship on the Danube. According to the 1995 Guinness Book of World Records, the longest German word in everyday usage is Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften (insurance companies which provide legal protection), counting 39 characters.
Since the German spelling reform of 1996, Schiffahrt is written with three fs, so the correct modern spelling in affected countries would use 80 letters, Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft, but as the word is a name, however, the spelling with 79 letters is kept.
[edit] See also
- Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaft
- Rinderkennzeichnungs- und Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz
- Longest word in English
