I got to use one of my favourite words today: sesquipedalian.

Our public Web site at work has just been 'revamped', and as part of the changes they are using some system that gives each page a very long URL (thus breaking all references in publications and letters). Our intranet had an article announcing the changes and inviting comments. As part of my email I said

quote:

... the sesquipedalian URLs now used are ridiculous. They cannot be given out in an email or by telephone. One URL I tried to give in an email recently had 193 characters.

In case you've not come across the word it literally means (of words) 'a foot and a half long'. As an adjective it can mean 'overly verbose and given to using long words'. Its self-referential aspect particularly amuses me, since it is such a long word itself. I'd be interested to know if the recipient of my email has to look it up; I already know that my response to their request for feedback won't have any effect.

Then there's hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian, an extreme form of the above. But this is apparently not a 'real' word.

I used it in a limerick that defined amino asparte transferase.

A nice word.

quote:

and as part of the changes they are using some system that gives each page a very long URL

Very interesting, Arnie. The same thing is happening at my workplace, as our Web site is being redesigned, and the new one will be rolled out in October. Many of the non-techy types are complaining about the sesquipedalian URLs. The IT Department has tried to explain it to us mere mortals...something about using "key words" rather than URLs. Apparently, according to our IT people, it's the "way of the future."

I imagine our Web team got a shedload of complaints yesterday. They've put back the old site exactly as it was. The new one lasted a day.

I'm an old publications editor who, four years ago, added content management of the college web site to my list of duties. You know: Here's the Web site; now go teach yourself how to edit it! So I did, with a lot of help from one of the people in IT. It's actually a lot of fun. Sesquipedalian URLs are one of the things people complain about most frequently and I have built many a referral page to solve the problem. I just built one for the Dean that leads directly to the job listings (www.xxxxxx.edu/jobs).

We have a content.asp system, whereby the code in each page basically tells the server what to include--include this header, this side navigation bar, use this style sheet, blah blah blah, and, oh yes, also add the content written for this specific page below. The result is rampant sesquipedalia in the location bar.

Ask your webmaster to create a referral page with a simplified URL for those pages which need to be publicized in printed publications. For us, that includes the museum, our fund-raising office, our financial aid office, etc. A referral page has one extra line of code in it that says, "refresh the screen in X seconds and go to this other page."

Wait til we get our new CMS (an automated Content Management System) in about a year. Then we'll have reallllllllly long URLS! Meanwhile, to convert any sesquipedalian URL into something reasonable, try the Tiny URL service.

Wordmatic

Thanks, wordmatic.

I used tinyURL to give the link via email; that's how I knew there were 193 characters in the original: I didn't count them myself!

Well, I suspect we're going to have lots of complaints, too, but there will be no turning back for us. It's costing us $175,000. We're having a meeting on Tuesday where they are going to explain to us why those sesquipedalian URLs are the "thing of the future."

Thanks for the site, Wordmatic. I am sure I'll be using it!

BTW, I haven't heard of "shedload," Arnie, though we have a similar word that we'd use in that situation that isn't so nice.

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:

BTW, I haven't heard of "shedload," Arnie, though we have a similar word that we'd use in that situation that isn't so nice.

We use it too.