The longest word in the English language isn’t the title of a catchy song from Mary Poppins, coined by a famous author, the name of a disease or made from a number of word prefixes and suffixes.
The technical term for titin, the largest known protein, takes the cake with 189,819 letters, blowing other milestones like Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, the longest word in a major dictionary, out of the water.
At first glance, the word—which shortens out to Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyl…isoleucine—seems impossible to pronounce, but Dmitry Golubovskiy, the editor-in-chief of Esquire Russia, gave it a shot.
The video, which shows Golubovskiy sitting at a table with a flower and a clock in the background as he pronounces this single word, runs over three-and-a-half hours. Luckily for him, the video wasn’t finished in one take. There’s a jump-cut around two hours, after which the flower wilts and Golubovskiy magically grows a beard for the final 90 minutes.
It has been watched over 112,000 times since it first went online Thursday, although we’re not sure how many of those people stuck around for the entire video.
Three-and-a-half hours is a lot of time to invest into any one thing—especially a video featuring the pronunciation of a single word—so we thought of some things that might better make use of approximately 1/8 of your day.
1) Roast a 16 lb. turkey
Thanksgiving is right around the corner, so what better way to ring in the holiday than putting together a traditional meal? This will take anywhere from 3-4 hours, depending on what temperature you set your oven to. And best of all, after it’s done you can serve the entire family just in time to…
2) Watch The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
I’m already counting down the days for the midnight release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. And while this film is a prequel to the beloved Lord of the Rings trilogy, I’m still going to reread the books and rewatch those movies as preparation. ROTK, the longest film (and arguably the best of the trilogy) clocks in at 201 minutes.
3) Catch a direct flight from Boston to Orlando
Many of us like to travel around the holidays, and while much of the country will soon have snow storms and near-freezing temperatures on their hands, why not try somewhere warmer? A direct flight from Boston to Orlando is approximately three hours and 15 minutes (although the exact time varies by airline and flight) and you can soon bask in the sun and enjoy all Orlando has to offer.
4) Tour the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s Basilica
If you’re looking for something a little more exotic, why not try Rome? Thousands of people try to gain entry into the museum daily and the queue often goes around the building soon after it opens. A guided tour will cost more, but you’ll have someone handy to ask about the priceless artwork as you go through the museum and church. A tour of both facilities will take about three hours.
5) Watch “Gangnam Style” 50 times
After countless parodies, radio plays, and an AMA performance with M.C. Hammer, we still can’t get enough of PSY’s catchy hit. It’s currently on the heels of Justin Bieber’s “Baby” for the most-viewed YouTube video of all time (and unlikely to lose steam anytime soon). So why not put “Gangnam Style” on repeat and perfect your horse trot?
Photo via Orkhanoid/YouTube
