Word: pompholygopaplilasma
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...your issue of April 3, one of your correspondents tells a story about a lovely long word invented by a scientist to represent "the complete sound caused by the sudden entry from above of a large stone into a deep pool." As a matter of fact the word pompholygopaplilasma (for that is the correct transliteration) was invented by the comic poet Aristophanes, and may be found at 1. 249 of his play The Frogs. It is made up of pompholyx which means a bubble, and paphlisma which means a frothing or foaming up. Hence the Aristophanic compound represents the sound...
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