The Longest French Word: Anticonstitutionnellement
Leaving aside specialist jargon and rare biological, physical, and chemical terms, as well as verb conjugations, the longest common French word found in ordinary dictionaries is generally considered to be:
anticonstitutionnellement
It has 25 letters and is an adverb. In English, it means unconstitutionally. In Chinese, it is more simply “in violation of the constitution.”
It is an interesting word, built from several morphemes. Here is how it is put together:
- anti-: a prefix that reverses or opposes what follows
- -constitu-: “to establish” or “to constitute”
- -tion(n)-: a suffix that forms a noun
- -el(le)-: a suffix that turns a noun into an adjective
- -ment: a suffix that turns an adjective into an adverb
Civics textbooks teach us that a constitution is a country’s fundamental law—the foundation on which its political and legal systems are built.
The root constitu- comes from Latin and means “to build, establish, or constitute.” In French, add -er to make the verb constituer, “to build, establish, or constitute.” Add -tion to form a noun, still referring to the act of constituting. In this context, of course, it means “constitution.” Chinese can be much more concise!
Then constitution takes the suffix -el or -elle to become the adjective “constitutional.” (Masculine nouns take -el; feminine nouns take -elle. We will leave grammatical gender for another time.)
Finally, add -ment to the adjective constitutionnel to make the adverb constitutionnellement, “constitutionally.” To say it more naturally in English: “in accordance with the constitution.”
Now put the opposite-making prefix anti- on the front, and the meaning flips: unconstitutionally.
And there you have it: after several layers of linguistic magic, the longest word is born!
Legal rules or court decisions found “unconstitutional” are usually in serious trouble, because they violate a country’s fundamental values. Who has the power to make that judgment? Many countries with constitutions have a system of constitutional review, which determines whether other laws comply with the constitution.
In the United States, that role belongs to the Supreme Court. Its nine justices decide cases appealed to the Court, but their ruling concerns whether the decision is constitutional, rather than the specific sentence or penalty. Through landmark cases, the Supreme Court has interpreted the U.S. Constitution over time and defended values Americans cherish, including freedom of the press and human rights. Readers interested in this subject can look at The Nine or The U.S. Supreme Court: A Very Short Introduction.
In France, the Constitutional Council has that role. The previous year, President François Hollande introduced a 75% tax on high incomes, prompting some wealthy people to change citizenship and leave the country. Actor Gérard Depardieu, known as “the man with the big nose,” angrily took Russian citizenship. The Constitutional Council later ruled the measure unconstitutional. After revisions and delays, it approved a revised version at the end of that year, for a two-year period.
In China, the relevant body is the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. It has issued five interpretations of Hong Kong’s Basic Law. I will leave it there; interested readers can look up the National People’s Congress Standing Committee’s interpretations of the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.