"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" /ˌsuːpərˌkælᵻˌfrædʒᵻˌlɪstɪkˌɛkspiˌælᵻˈdoʊʃəs/ is a song from the 1964 Disney musical film Mary Poppins. The song was written by the Sherman Brothers, and sung by Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. It also appears in the stage show version. Because Mary Poppins was a period piece set in 1910, songs that sounded similar to songs of the period were wanted. The movie version finished at #36 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.
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Origin and meaning
The Oxford English Dictionary estimates that the word "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" was first attested in the 1940s. The roots of the word have been defined as follows: super- "above", cali- "beauty", fragilistic- "delicate", expiali- "to atone", and -docious "educable", with the sum of these parts signifying roughly "Atoning for educability through delicate beauty." According to the film, in which the word gained its popularity, it is defined as "something to say when you have nothing to say". However, it is commonly defined as "extraordinarily good" or "wonderful" as all references to the word in the film can be perceived as positive. Dictionary.com also notes that the word is "used as a nonsense word by children to express approval or to represent the longest word in English."
According to Richard M. Sherman, co-writer of the song with his brother, Robert, the word was one that the two knew in their youth. In an episode of the Disney Family Album featuring the story of the brother's careers, Richard Sherman stated, "we remembered this wonderful word from our childhood".
In a 2007 interview, Sherman indicated that the final version of the word was produced by the two brothers over the course of two weeks during the songwriting process, indicating only that the origins of the word were in their memories of creating double-talk words in their childhood.
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious was first added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 1986. A well known pun plays on the word, by joking that Mahatma Gandhi was a "super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis". Similarly, in 2016, a YouTube video mocking Donald Trump for using the word " Braggadocious" in a debate, described him as "Super Callous, Fragile, Egocentric, Braggadocious".
"Supercalifragilistic" is an abbreviation of "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," originating in 1966, two years after the word "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" was popularized in 1964.
Story context
The song occurs in the chalk-drawing outing animated sequence, just after Mary Poppins wins a horse race. Flush with her victory, she is immediately surrounded by reporters who pepper her with leading questions and they comment that she probably is at a loss for words. Mary disagrees, suggesting that at least one word is appropriate for the situation and begins the song.
Backwards version
During the song, Poppins says, "You know, you can say it backwards, which is 'dociousaliexpilisticfragicalirupes', but that's going a bit too far, don't you think?"
Her claim was not about spelling it backwards, but saying it backwards; if one breaks the word into several sections or prosodic feet ("super-cali-fragi-listic-expi-ali-docious") and recites them in reverse sequence, and also modifies "super" to "rupes", it comes close to what Poppins said in the film.
However, when the word is spelled backwards it actually becomes "suoicodilaipxecitsiligarfilacrepus", which is different.
In the stage musical, the word's actual spelling reversal is used, while Rapper Ghostface Killah said "dociousaliexpilisticfragicalisuper", which is the full prosody version, in his song "Buck 50".
Legal action
In 1965, the song was the subject of an unsuccessful lawsuit by songwriters Gloria Parker and Barney Young against Wonderland Music, who published the version of the song from the Walt Disney film. The plaintiffs alleged that it was a copyright infringement of a 1951 song of their own called "Supercalafajalistickespeealadojus". Also known as "The Super Song", "Supercalafajalistickespeealadojus" was recorded by Alan Holmes and his New Tones on Columbia Records, vocal by Hal Marquess and the Holmes Men, music and lyrics by Patricia Smith (a Gloria Parker pen name). In addition, "Supercalafajalistickespeealadojus" was recorded on Gloro Records (45) by The Arabian Knights. The Disney publishers won the lawsuit partially because affidavits were produced showing that "variants of the word were known ... many years prior to 1949".
The first known appearance of the root or similar word (Supercaliflawjalisticexpialidoshus) is from an "A-Muse-ings" column by Helen Herman in The Syracuse Daily Orange (Syracuse University), March 10, 1931. In it, columnist Herman muses about her made-up word.
Stage musical
In the stage musical, Mary Poppins takes Jane and Michael Banks to visit Mrs Corry's shop to buy "an ounce of conversation", only to find that Mrs Corry has run out of conversation. She does, however have some letters, and Jane and Michael each pick out seven, with Mary choosing one also. As Bert, Mary and the rest of the ensemble struggle to create words out of the fifteen letters, Mary reminds them that they can always use the same letter more than once, and creates the word (and song) Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. In addition, the cast spells it out in a kind of gesture that was suggested by choreographer Stephen Mear, whose partner is deaf.
Football headline
In February 2000, Inverness Caledonian Thistle defeated Glasgow's Celtic FC 3-1 in the third round of the Scottish Cup football competition. The result, one of the biggest ever upsets in Scottish football, led to the famous newspaper headline "Super Caley go ballistic, Celtic are atrocious" by The Sun. The Guardian rated it as number 5 in six of the greatest football headlines.
Olympic history
English yachtsman Rodney Pattison won three Olympic medals in sailing during the Games of 1968 (gold), 1972 (gold) and 1976 (silver) in a Flying Dutchman called Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious written in large colorful waves on the hull.