December 13, 2008, 07:31
shufitz"Multiconfessional"
Condoleezza Rice, speaking of Iraq in a recent interview, used not one but
two double-dactyl words.
"Then? Saddam Hussein … murdered his own people, terrorized his neighbors and sought weapons of mass destruction. Today? You have a multiethnic, multiconfessional democracy that isn't threatening its neighbors."
"Is it done? No. … but we are moving in an undeniably different direction in what is, some would say, geostrategically, the most important country in the Arab world."
understand the second word, but "
multiconfessional"? What's that?
December 13, 2008, 08:28
<Proofreader>quote:
understand the second word, but "multiconfessional"? What's that?
I thought I was the only one who wouldn't know.
Isn't that what they have in large Catholic cathedrals? A sinner's assembly line?
December 13, 2008, 09:35
zmježd multiconfessional"Of, or tolerant of, many religions" (
link).
December 13, 2008, 21:00
KallehIt's a strange word for her to use because it doesn't even appear in Onelook.
December 16, 2008, 08:49
shufitzNot in OED either, though they updated this part of the alphabet just a few years ago. The word seems to be reasonably common. I've alerted the folks at OED.
December 16, 2008, 19:54
KallehWell, in all fairness, it only gets 23,800 hits.
December 16, 2008, 21:05
zmježd it only gets 23,800 hitsAnd the e-word gets 7,040.
December 19, 2008, 20:02
KallehI wonder how many of those are ours.
And, for the record, "e-word" has 1,840,000 hits. I know... I know...