In many languages, there is a word for something oddly specific, so much that it seems pointless to use it.

One of my favorites in the English language is defenestration, or tossing something/one out of a window.

So what other pointless words can you find? How about in other languages?

I believe Russian is renowned for having ridiculously specific curse words

German is apparently well-known for rather long and specific compound words, though I can't think of any examples off hand.

In English, one of the longest words is a specific kind of lung disease: pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. It even passes the spell-check on Firefox. But I guess it's not entirely pointless, just pointlessly long.

We have defenestration in Portuguese too, and also Spanish. Probably in french too since "fenestre" (window), the source of the word, is in french.

In English, one of the longest words is a specific kind of lung disease: pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. It even passes the spell-check on Firefox. But I guess it's not entirely pointless, just pointlessly long.

We have that word too. In every neolatin language.

German has some fun ones... "Schadenfreude" (enjoying someone else's pain).

Portuguese has "saudade" (to miss someone), though it's not quite pointless.

enjoying someone's pain so sadism.

"what is this cancer?"

Donaudampfschiffsfahrtskapitänskajüte.

Longest German word I can think of.

https://translate.google.com/#auto/en/Donaudampfschiffsfahrtskapit%C3%A4nskaj%C3%BCte.

awesome.

"Hey Fritz, thats a nice Donaudampfschiffsfahrtskapitänskajüte!"

Edited 2/16/2016 18:23:11

You

hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia - the fear of long words

Don't you have that long word ending with "verzamelaar", Belgian?

We have defenestration in Portuguese too, and also Spanish. Probably in french too since "fenestre" (window), the source of the word, is in french.

In polish it exists too ("defenestracja"). Appears that most european languages adopted this term.

"To take" and "to have taken" (? basically a finished form of "to take", like "I took the bottle", as opposed to "I'm taking the bottle") are two different words in polish: "brać" and "wziąć".
Also there are more than 10 different words that translate to either "fuck" or "to fuck".

Also there are more than 10 different words that translate to either "fuck" or "to fuck".

I can confirm that... quite embarrassing, really :P

Oh Poland....you naughty, naughty, little nation of love.

Hentai is a pointless word

not really since what else would they use instead of it.

+1 @Bane.

SirSalty is a pointless word

I've always like Antidisestablishmentarianism, which is the state of being opposed to the disestablishment of the church of England.

+1 Muddles

We should stop using the word "SirSalty", it's useless.