English

Noun

antidisestablishmentarianism ‎(usually uncountable, plural antidisestablishmentarianisms)

1. A political philosophy opposed to the separation of a religious group ("church") and a government ("state"), especially the belief held by those in 19th century England opposed to separating the Anglican church from the civil government or to refer to separation of church and state. [from 20th c.]
   • 1998, University of Oklahoma College of Law, American Indian Law Review:

     Jed Rubenfeld, who actually may not have been recycling a Boerne Court- rejected argument into a law review article,⁴⁵⁰ reasoned that RFRA indeed lacked constitutionality, but because of First Amendment antidisestablishmentarianism, and not the reasons offered by the Court.⁴⁵¹

   • 2002, Angela Hague and David Lavery (credited as editors, but truly authors of the compiled fictional reviews), Teleparody: predicting/preventing the TV discourse of tomorrow

     The establishmentarianism of Hatch's alliance-building strategy undermined by the disestablishmentarianism of Wiglesworth's treachery triggers an antidisestablishmentarianism in Hawk — but the negation of Wiglesworth's 'dis' coupled with the counter-negation of Hawk's 'anti' does not simply generate a synthetic affirmation of Hatch's 'establishmentarianism'. Instead, Hawk's antidisestablishmentarianism, like a cancerous wart on the end of the nose, is perched at the fuzzy border separating ontology from oncology, malignity from malignancy.

Usage notes

Chiefly in use as an example of a long word.

Translations

Related terms

• antidisestablishmentarian
• disestablishmentarianism
• establish
• established church
• establishment

See also

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• pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
• supercalifragilisticexpialidocious