# antidisestablishmentarianism **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 9, 2006, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antidisestablishmentarianism/339112 "2006-01-09T06:15:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antidisestablishmentarianism/339112/1 "2006-01-09T06:15:16Z")
What, ultimately, is the root word under all those prefixes and suffixes? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antidisestablishmentarianism/339112/2 "2006-01-09T06:17:49Z")
> [@Enola Straight](#): > > What, ultimately, is the root word under all those prefixes and suffixes? [Establishment](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mantidis.html). ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antidisestablishmentarianism/339112/3 "2006-01-09T06:18:14Z")
“establish” – you can’t break that down any further in English. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antidisestablishmentarianism/339112/4 "2006-01-09T06:20:33Z")
(And in this context, “establish” means to make a religion the official religion of a country or state – in particular, to make the Church of England the official religon of England). ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antidisestablishmentarianism/339112/5 "2006-01-09T06:30:15Z")
> **[Antidisestablishmentarianism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antidisestablishmentarianism)** > > Antidisestablishmentarianism (/ˌæntidɪsɪˌstæblɪʃmənˈtɛəriənɪzəm/ (listen), US also /ˌæntaɪ-/ (listen)) is a position that advocates that a state Church (the "established church") should continue to receive government patronage, rather than be disestablished. > In 19th-century Britain, it developed as a political movement in opposition to disestablishmentarianism, the Liberal Party's efforts to disestablish or remove the Church of England as the official state church of England, Ireland, and Wal... ---
**Author:** ![Eurograff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/df705f/32.png) [@Eurograff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eurograff)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antidisestablishmentarianism/339112/6 "2006-01-09T10:40:56Z")
And _establish_, of course, means to make stable, so you could argue that “stable” is the root word here, as it exists in English. _Establish_ is a French spelling of Latin stabilire, which comes from stabilis, meaning firm or stable. This is a form of the verb stare, which means to stand. This word exists in rather similar forms in most Indo-European languages, and very probably derives straight from Proto-Indo-European. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antidisestablishmentarianism/339112/7 "2006-01-09T10:51:44Z")
Also, ‘antidisestablishmentarianism’ isn’t the limit of possible suffixes/prefixes, you could also have nonantidisestablishmentarianismically or perhaps quasiantidisestablishmentarianismically ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antidisestablishmentarianism/339112/8 "2006-01-09T12:29:23Z")
Anti-distinctly-minty… ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antidisestablishmentarianism/339112/9 "2006-01-09T13:36:49Z")
As mentioned earlier: 1. Establishment refers to the establishment of the Anglican CHurch as the official religion of England. 2. Disestablishment was a movement to remove the Anglican church’s status as England’s official religion. 3. Antidisestablishmentarianism is a philosophy that opposed removing the Anglican church’s honored status. But since, as our first grade teachers told us, "two negatives (like “anti” and “dis”) make a positive, “establishmentarianism” probably would have worked just fine. No need for two extra prefixes. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_T](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antidisestablishmentarianism/339112/10 "2006-01-09T14:21:39Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > But since, as our first grade teachers told us, "two negatives (like “anti” and “dis”) make a positive, “establishmentarianism” probably would have worked just fine. No need for two extra prefixes. But there is a significant distinction in this case. “Establishmentarianism” would reflect wanting to establish said church. “Antidisestablishmentariansism” is not wanting to establish the church per se (it was already established), but opposing efforts to rescind said establishment. While the end result – having the church established – is basically the same, doing something is not the same as protesting its undoing. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antidisestablishmentarianism/339112/11 "2006-01-09T18:18:26Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > But since, as our first grade teachers told us, "two negatives (like “anti” and “dis”) make a positive, “establishmentarianism” probably would have worked just fine. No need for two extra prefixes. Your first grade teacher thought you were too young to understand [litotes](http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsLitotes.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antidisestablishmentarianism/339112/12 "2006-01-09T20:22:19Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > But since, as our first grade teachers told us, "two negatives (like “anti” and “dis”) make a positive, “establishmentarianism” probably would have worked just fine. No need for two extra prefixes. Ask your first grade teacher what she thinks of the word “undiscovered.” :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antidisestablishmentarianism/339112/13 "2006-01-09T21:34:37Z")
A Rule of Thumb for the SDMB: If a person starts a post on the English language with the words “I learned in school” what follows will invariably be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2006, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/antidisestablishmentarianism/339112/14 "2006-01-09T21:58:38Z")
My linguistics (anthropology) professor wrote this on the board and specifically asked this exact question. The answer according to her was “esta,” something about latin or something meaning “to be” …It was a looooong time ago.