Blog: Insurance spawns Germany's longest word

Thirty-six letters and two scrabble-board's worth of bliss, the term for "automobile liability insurance" is certainly a badge of honour for the industry. And it's not alone.

Linguists and insurance aficionados can celebrate the fact that an even longer term meaning "insurance firms providing legal protection" features in the Guinness Book of World Records, as the longest German word in everyday use.

Alas, the matter that brought this to my attention was the death of another word- Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz- a relic of the BSE era denoting an EU beef labelling law.

It was repealed by German authorities yesterday, after the relaxation of beef testing laws rendered the linguistic behemoth defunct.

Explaining German's tendency towards long, compound words, Sebastian Borger, a German journalist, told the BBC's Today programme that they give you "a very precise way of expressing yourself".  A sentiment I applaud wholeheartedly.

By all accounts very few people were actually able to pronounce-Kraftfahrzeughaftpflichtversicherung- or its abbreviated form- RkReÜAÜG.

But in the Twitter era, when the demand for concise terms is ever present, it is nice to know that there is still a place for the subtle nuances of polysyllabic portmanteaus.

One excited tweeter suggested today that Germany is not alone, claiming the longest word in Dutch is the word for "carrier's liability insurance". With my limited Dutch I have been unable to verify this, but it's a pleasing thought nonetheless.

If you have examples of insurance pushing the boundaries of language in any other European countries, please do share them. Let's celebrate the vocabulary spawned by this fine industry- and hope that EU regulation poses no threat to its future. 

Francesca Nyman is a reporter for Insurance Insight. Contact her at francesca.nyman@incisivemedia.com