Germany's longest word, a more than 60-letter tongue twister - Rindfleischetikettierungsueberwachungsaufgabenuebertragungsgesetz - has been abolished, dpa reported. The word refers to a law regulating the testing of beef. But a German regional court said it is longer needed after the European Union ruled that tests on healthy animals were no longer necessary. The law for the delegation of monitoring beef labelling, which has generally been known by its abbreviation, RkReUeAUeG, was introduced in 1999 as part of efforts to protect consumers amid a BSE meat scare. Berlin linguist Professor Anatol Stefanowitsch told dpa it was "the longest authentic word in the German language." The German language is filled with compound words - many of which simply go by shorthand versions based on initials. "Most of the really long words are normally formed from legal texts," said Stefanowitsch, but chemical terms also sometimes come in at record-breaking lengths. The demise of RkReUeAUeG probably leaves the almost 50-letter Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitaenswitwe - the Danube steam ship company's captain's widow - as a contender to take over as Germany's longest word. But the 36-letter Kraftfahrzeug-Haftpflichtversicherung - motor vehicle liability insurance - also might stand a chance as it is the longest word in the leading German dictionary, Duden, and is also in more general use. "Long words are sometimes just awkward," said Andrea-Eva Ewels, who heads the Association for the German Language, also known as GfdS. Germany is not alone in its fondness for long words. The longest word in the Oxford English Dictionary is the 45-letter pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, which refers to a form of lung disease.
