What I should have said sunday @ 9:00AM


Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
(super - cali - fragil - istic - expee - alee - doe - shus)
is a song and a long word from the movie Mary Poppins (and in the musical version)
The song describes using the word as a miraculous way to talk oneself out of difficult situations,
and even as a way to change one's mood.
The song appears in the film's animated sequence where Mary Poppins is harangued by reporters after winning a horse race and responds to one claiming there are not words to describe her feelings of the moment.
Mary disagrees with that and begins the song about one word she can use.
Ever since the word is used as an adjective referring to
"absolutely stunningly fantastic".
The word itself has obscure origins, pertaining as to when it was first used,
but the roots are fairly clear,
as Richard Lederer wrote in his book Crazy English:
super- "above," cali- "beauty," fragilistic- "delicate," expiali- "to atone," and docious- "educable,"
the sum meaning roughly
"Atoning for extreme and delicate beauty while still being highly educable."
This is the perfect word for Mary Poppins to use, being that she thinks of herself as incredibly beautiful but also extremely intelligent, which makes up for it.

Comments

Carmen said…
Hey Liz, you are fantastically, educably cool already, with or without the help of Mary Poppins on a difficult Sunday morning.

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