"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" () is a song and single from the 1964

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musical film ''

Mary Poppins Mary Poppins may refer to: * Mary Poppins (character), a nanny with magical powers * Mary Poppins (franchise), based on the fictional nanny ** Mary Poppins (book series), ''Mary Poppins'' (book series), the original 1934–1988 children's fanta ...

''. It was written by the

Sherman Brothers The Sherman Brothers were an American songwriting duo that specialized in musical films, made up of brothers Robert Sherman (December 19, 1925 – March 6, 2012) and Richard Sherman (June 12, 1928 – May 25, 2024). Together they received ...

, and sung by

Julie Andrews Dame Julie Andrews (born Julia Elizabeth Wells; 1 October 1935) is an English actress, singer, and author. She has garnered numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over eight decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Fi ...

and

Dick Van Dyke Richard Wayne Van Dyke (born December 13, 1925) is an American actor, entertainer and comedian. Dick Van Dyke on screen and stage, His work spans screen and stage, and List of awards and nominations received by Dick Van Dyke, his awards includ ...

. It also appears in the 2004 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 The cinema of the United States, primarily associated with major film studios collectively referred to as Hollywood, has significantly influenced the global film industry since the early 20th century. Classical Hollywood cinema, a filmmakin ...

Story context

The song occurs in the

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-drawing outing animated sequence, just after Mary Poppins wins a

horse race Horse racing is an equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its bas ...

. Flush with her victory, she is immediately surrounded by

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s who pepper her with questions and suggest that she is at a loss for words. Mary disagrees, saying that at least one word is appropriate for the situation, and begins the song with this very word.

Word meaning and general origin

The word is a

compound word In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word or Sign language, sign) that consists of more than one Word stem, stem. Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of word formation that creates compound lexemes. C ...

, and said by

Richard Lederer Richard Lederer (born 1938) is an American linguist, author, speaker, and teacher. He is best known for his books on the English language and on wordplay such as puns, oxymorons, and anagrams. He has been dubbed "the Wizard of Idiom," "Attila ...

in his book ''Crazy English'' to be made up of these words: super- "above", cali- "beauty", fragilistic- "delicate", expiali- "to atone", and -docious "educable", with all of these parts combined meaning "Atoning for being educable through delicate beauty." The ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

'' first records the word (with a spelling of "supercaliflawjalisticeexpialadoshus") in the column titled "A-muse-ings" by Helen Herman in the

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

'' Daily Orange'', dated March 10, 1931. In the column, Herman states that the word "implies all that is grand, great, glorious, splendid, superb, wonderful". The word was popularized in the 1964 film ''

'', in which it is used as the title of a song and defined as "something to say when you don't know what to say". The

, who wrote the ''

'' song, have given several conflicting explanations for the word's

origin Origin(s) or The Origin may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics and manga * ''Origin'' (comics), a Wolverine comic book mini-series published by Marvel Comics in 2002 * ''The Origin'' (Buffy comic), a 1999 ''Buffy the Vampire Sl ...

, in one instance claiming to have coined it themselves, based on their memories of having created

double-talk Double-talk is a form of speech in which inappropriate, invented, or nonsense words are interpolated into normal speech to give the appearance of knowledge, and thus confuse or amuse the audience. Examples Comedians who have used this as part of ...

words as children. In another instance, they wrote:

When we were little boys in the mid-1930s, we went to a
summer camp A summer camp, also known as a sleepaway camp or residential camp, is a supervised overnight program for children conducted during the summer vacation from school in many countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer residential camps ...
in the
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, where we were introduced to a very long word that had been passed down in many variations through many generations of kids. ... The word as we first heard it was super-cadja-flawjalistic-espealedojus.

Dictionary.com meanwhile says it is "used as a

nonsense word In linguistics, a nonce word—also called an occasionalism—is any word (lexeme), or any sequence of sounds or letters, created for a single occasion or utterance but not otherwise understood or recognized as a word in a given languag ...

by children to express approval or to represent the

longest word in English The identity of the longest word in English language, English depends on the definition of "word" and of length. Words may be derived naturally from History of English, the language's roots or formed by #Coinages, coinage and #Constructions, cons ...

." The word contains 34 letters and 14 syllables.

Legal action

In 1965, the song was the subject of an unsuccessful

lawsuit A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today ...

by songwriters

Gloria Parker Gloria Parker (née Rosenthal; August 20, 1921April 13, 2022) was an American musician and bandleader who had a radio show during the big band era. '' The Gloria Parker Show'' was broadcast nightly from 1950 to 1957, coast to coast on WABC. She ...

and Barney Young against Wonderland Music, Disney's music publishing subsidiary, and publisher of the song from the film. The plaintiffs alleged that it was a

copyright infringement Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of Copyright#Scope, works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the c ...

of their 1949 song "Supercalafajalistickespeealadojus". Also known as "The Super Song", it was recorded by

Alan Holmes Alan Holmes is a musician and record producer, based in north Wales. Although he began his musical career in the late 1960s in childhood beat group the Insects, he first came to prominence in the Zuggs (in 1979), followed by A Silly Tree, the l ...

and His New Tones for

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American reco ...

, with vocal by Hal Marquess and the Holmes Men, and music and lyrics by Patricia Smith (a Gloria Parker pen name) and Don Fenton. Another recording of "Supercalafajalistickespeealadojus", performed by The Arabian Knights and published by Gloro Records, was released in 1951. The Disney publishers won the lawsuit in part because they produced affidavits showing that "variants of the word were known ... many years prior to 1949".

Backwards version

During the song, Poppins says, "You know, you can say it backwards, which is 'dociousaliexpilistic-fragilcalirupus', but that's going a bit too far, don't you think?" (To which Dick Van Dyke replies, "Indubitably.") Andrews' husband,

Tony Walton Anthony John Walton (24 October 1934 – 2 March 2022) was a British costume designer and set designer. He won three Tony Awards, an Academy Award, and an Emmy Award. He received three Tony Awards for '' Pippin'' (1973), '' House of Blue Leaves' ...

, who also designed the sets and costumes, came up with the backwards version. Her claim was not about ''spelling'' it backwards, but rather ''saying'' it backwards; in other words, 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 "rupus", 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 Musical theatre is a form of theatre, theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, ...

, the word's actual spelling reversal is used, while rapper

Ghostface Killah Dennis David Coles (born May 9, 1970), better known by his stage name Ghostface Killah, is an American rapper and a member of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan. After the group achieved breakthrough success in the aftermath of ''Enter the Wu-Tang ...

said "docious-ali-expi-listic-fragi-cali-super", which is the full prosody version, in his song "Buck 50" released on his album ''

Supreme Clientele ''Supreme Clientele'' is the second studio album by American rapper and Wu-Tang Clan member Ghostface Killah, released on February 8, 2000, by Epic Records. The album showcases Ghostface's signature up-tempo, Stream of consciousness (narrative mo ...

''.

Chart history

"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" was released as a single, achieving a measure of commercial success on the U.S. music charts. It peaked at number 66 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Hot 100. It did much better on the

Adult Contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

chart, reaching number 14.

Certifications

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.

Other references

The word was used on the US game show Password Plus, first as a clue to a puzzle, and later as the puzzle itself. English yachtsman Rodney Pattisson won three Olympic medals in sailing during the Games of

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

(gold),

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, ...

(gold) and

1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

(silver) in a

Flying Dutchman The ''Flying Dutchman'' () is a legendary ghost ship, allegedly never able to make port, but doomed to sail the sea forever. The myths and ghost stories are likely to have originated from the 17th-century Golden Age of the Dutch East India C ...

called ''Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious'' (abbreviated to ''Superdocious'') written in large colorful waves on the hull. Japanese rock band

Boøwy Boøwy ( ; stylized as BOØWY) was a Japanese rock band formed in Takasaki, Gunma in 1981. The classic lineup of vocalist Kyosuke Himuro, guitarist Tomoyasu Hotei, bassist Tsunematsu Matsui, and drummer Makoto Takahashi reached legendary stat ...

included a song called "SUPER-CALIFRAGILISTIC-EXPIARI-DOCIOUS" that was written by their guitarist

Tomoyasu Hotei , also known simply as Hotei ( ), is a Japanese musician, singer-songwriter, composer, record producer and actor. With a career spanning more than 40 years, Hotei claims record sales of over 40 million copies and has collaborated with artists fr ...

on their 1986 number one album ''Beat Emotion''. In February 2000,

Inverness Caledonian Thistle Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, commonly known as Caley Thistle, Inverness CT or just Inverness, is a professional football club based in Inverness, Scotland. The team competes in , the third tier of the Scottish Professional Footba ...

defeated Glasgow's

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

3–1 in the third round of the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

''. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' rated it as number 5 in six of the greatest football headlines. One

pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...

on the word jokes that

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

was a "super calloused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis". In 2011, a group of fans of the webcomic

Homestuck ''Homestuck'' is an Internet fiction series created by American author and artist Andrew Hussie. The fourth and best-known of Hussie's four ''MS Paint Adventures'', it originally ran from April 13, 2009, to April 13, 2016. Though normally describ ...

produced an album of songs called ''Land of Fans and Music.'' One such track is a parody titled "SadoMasoPedoRoboNecroBestiality". According to the vocalist, Goatmon, the lyrics were adapted from a post on the

Something Awful ''Something Awful'' (SA) is an American comedy website hosting content including blog entries, Internet forum, forums, feature articles, digitally edited pictures, and humorous media reviews. It was created by Richard Kyanka, Richard "Lowtax" K ...

forums. In 2012, The vocaloid song "Ai Dee" by Mitchie M, featuring

Hatsune Miku , officially code-named CV01, is a Vocaloid software voicebank developed by Crypton Future Media. Its official mascot is depicted as a sixteen-year-old girl with long, turquoise twintails. Miku's personification has been marketed as a virt ...

and

Megurine Luka , codenamed "CV03", is a Vocaloid software developed by Crypton Future Media, headquartered in Sapporo, Japan. Its official ''moe'' anthropomorphism is a 20-year-old woman. She uses Yamaha Corporation's Vocaloid 2 and Vocaloid 4 singing synthes ...

references this word in the lyrics. Luka raps in this lyrics, "Super-cali-fragilistic-expiali-docious, Oh!" In 2016, Randy Rainbow created a parody video of the song, in which he called (then-candidate)

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

"super callous fragile egocentric braggadocious", "super careless fragile ego extra braggadocious", "super sleazy fabricating sexist and obnoxious", "superficial chauvinistic arrogant and thoughtless", and "super calculated adolescent braggadocious". In 2017,

was selected to receive an award for television excellence from

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

, at which time he said "I appreciate this opportunity to apologise to the members of Bafta for inflicting on them the most atrocious cockney accent in the history of cinema." A chief executive of Bafta responded, "We look forward to his acceptance speech in whatever accent he chooses on the night. We have no doubt it will be supercalifragilisticexpialidocious." In 2018,

Girona Girona (; ) is the capital city of the Province of Girona in the autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain, at the confluence of the Ter, Onyar, Galligants, and Güell rivers. The city had an official population of 106,476 in 2024, but the p ...

manager

Pablo Machín Pablo Machín Díez (; born 7 April 1975) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a right-back. Playing career Born in Soria, Machín was a CD Numancia youth graduate. Despite making five first team appearances during the ...

was asked to describe his club, using only one word. He responded "Ok, I'll use the longest word I know: ''supercalifragilisticoespialidoso''". In 2021, a cover was sung by

Hololive (; stylized in lowercase) is a virtual YouTuber agency owned by Japanese tech entertainment company Cover Corporation. In addition to acting as a multi-channel network, Hololive Production also handles licensing, merchandising, music productio ...

's virtual idols Momosuzu Nene and Pavolia Reine, with the latter singing the word during the rap part. In 2021, the game show ''

Press Your Luck ''Press Your Luck'' is an American television game show created by Bill Carruthers and Jan McCormack. Contestants answer trivia questions to earn "spins" on a randomly cycling game board. The board's spaces display cash, prizes, extra spins, sp ...

'' introduced a Whammy animation spoofing the song, with "Whammy Poppins" singing "Supercalifragilistic-give me all your money!" In September 2022, Japanese boyband

JO1 is a Japanese boy band formed through the first season of '' Produce 101 Japan'' by Lapone Entertainment. The group is composed of eleven members: Issei Mamehara, Ren Kawashiri, Takumi Kawanishi, Shosei Ohira, Shion Tsurubo, Ruki Shiroiwa, ...

pre-released the song "SuperCali" from their EP single, ''

Midnight Sun Midnight sun, also known as polar day, is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the summer months in places north of the Arctic Circle or south of the Antarctic Circle, when the Sun remains visible at the local midnight. When midnight sun is see ...

''. The title is abbreviation of "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious", which was introduced as the word that "makes infinite possibilities come true" at their tour.

References

External links

"Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious"
at the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

, Department of Health & Human Services (NIEHS). (Lyrics and mp3 audio clip).
''Mary Poppins'' (1964)
at ''Reel Classics''; features "Multimedia Clips": incl
''Mary Poppins'' Highlights: "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!"
{{Authority control 1964 songs 1964 singles 1964 quotations Julie Andrews songs Dick Van Dyke songs Male–female vocal duets Nonce words Patter songs Songs about language Songs from Mary Poppins Songs involved in plagiarism controversies Songs written by the Sherman Brothers Words originating in fiction Walt Disney Records singles Quotations from music Quotations from film Nonsense