I learned this on a quiz site, but is it indeed so?

"Uncopyrightable is the longest word in the English language without repeating a letter."

Uncopyrightable text includes recipes and stitch patterns (for embroidery, crochet, knitting, etc.) No one "owns" the recipe for white bread or single crochet, or garter stitch or cross stitch.

this is one of the reasons why the coca cola recipe is top secret. if it ever got out, the information would be public domain.

(as for uncopyrightable being the longest word in the English language without repeating a letter, i dunno!)

"... recipes and stitch patterns ..."
I had no idea. Thanks.

Oh, yeah--Kern's Kitchen has fought strongly to protect its Derby Pie copyright. Other people can make pies out of the same ingredients, but nobody else can call it Derby Pie. Some infringement or other usually makes the paper here every couple of years or so, just prior to the first Saturday in May.

Oh--sorry, Anna; I've heard that about uncopyrightable, too, but don't know where to verify/disprove it.

Richard Lederer agrees if you limit yourself to 'fairly common words', but watch out for dermatoglyphics.

-joe (ambidextrously) friday

So patterns and recipes are uncopyrightables? (^_^)
Derby Pie would be a trademark not a copyright.
A secret formula would have to have a patent not a copyright.
I think your recipes and patterns technically would be copyrightable, but all I would have to do is re-write it in a different fashion (paraphrase) to avoid infringement of the copywrite. Copywrite covers the way something is written, not the outcome of absorbing the information. You would like to be able to "copyright" the making of the exact sweater not the exact writing of the pattern for the sweater.
If Coca-cola's formula was patented (and wasn't it originally a "patent medicine"?), it would have expired long ago.

[Edit: yes, i had a spelling malfunction today]

>uncopywriteables

if you buy uncopywriteable as a noun, I think you must agree that it is 'fairly uncommon'.

-joe ( you frowzy-tingled-humpback ) friday

copyWRITE?

in knitting (and crochet, and embroidery) there are stitch patterns (cross stitch, 'stocking knit/stockinette', single crochet.)

the directions for these are pretty simple.. there is a limited number of ways to say 'knit every stitch in the first row, purl every stitch in second row" and copyrighting the words is difficult. (photos, layout, charts, typeface.. these detail go into the copyright protection of a book of knit stitches.. but the words? uncopyrightable.)

like wise a cross stitch (looks like an X not a +) can't be copyrigthed, but directions to make a letter A out of collected cross stitches? copyrighteable!

patterns for garments? even something as simple as a scarf?
Use yarn X, with needles size y, cast on Z
knit every row till--(it is so long, or till you run out of yarn (use 1 ball, or 2 balls, or ...) bind off

that pattern can be copyrighted (and has been!)
change the yarn, change the needle size, change the number of stitches cast on, or the length, and you have a new pattern--

Toll House® Chocolate Morsel Cookies recipes-- (That use the registered trade marked brand of chocolate morsels.) can be copyrighted.

but chocolate chip cookies recipes? public domain!

(this subject comes up frequently on knitting BB's...)

copyWRITE?

Don't get copywrought about it ...

copyright :- 2.89M ghits
copywrite :- 692K ghits
copywright :- 623K ghits

Oh, this is quite a thread! I can knit socks, Helen,Zocks!All my friends were punished with my socks once. And mice! Lots and lots of Mize!I'm sure there is a copyright on patterns, meaning you can copy them but not publish them.Copies,no problem.

Shouldn't that word be publishright then?

Yes, I have a mental disorder with copy-right since it is the denial of the right to copy - it's the anticopy-unright - the non-author does not have the right to copy or the author has the right to anticopying protection. (It also seems more to do with writing than copying to me.) Copyright also gives rise to copyleft. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft

I have a similar problem with perforate. It seems more important that the tiny holes in the paper are made ahead of time (pre-forate) than that the holes go thorough (per-forate), esp considering they often don't go through (or you'd need a microscope to prove it.)

Y'all people are very strange.

No bran shea, you can't photo copy (not with out permission!)
well you can copy for yourself (i often do, so i don't have to carry a whole book around with me, or rip the pages out of the book)

but its not generally acceptable to photo copy (for distribution) a pattern. when you buy a pattern (in a book, in a store, as a pdf download..it's for your personal use. in most cases, you can't donate to a charity auction. (you can donate to charity and you can give away the finished object, but you can't give the FO to a charity to auction off (with out permission)

Libraries (well libraries in US) have library edition of books--these are more expensive than home editions. it is recognized that library edition of a pattern book might have patterns photocopied --(and it's ok to photocopy a reasonable amount of material.. (10% or so) of a library book for personal use..

Just as we have language experts here (and scholars who know can translate latin, german, etc, there are some lawyers who specialize in copyright law who are also knitters.. and there are knitting blog and knitting BB that have whole threads devoted to the details of copyright law (and what is copyrightable (or what is uncopyrightable!)

I'm a very unobsessed knitter Helen and sometimes I do uncopyrightable things. I've copied the mouse to five friends.I hope the lawyers won't read this.
Any other fairly common word that equals copy/paste: uncopyrightable?

Well, BranShea, in the high circles I travel in the term jungarctosphile is fairly common.

jung-arctos-phile:

jung = Carl Jung
arctos = bear
phile = friend of

jungarctosphile: Carl Jung's theory that the spontaneous fondness that all of mankind feels towards teddy bears can be found deep within in our collective psyche. (also see WWFTD for arctophile)

(copyrighted 10-10-2007 all rights reserved)

What's a tingled ?

Edit: see, *I won't pounce upon poor, benited Myridon; but I will accost tsuwm!

Smatter Milo, lose that © already?

you frowzy-tingled-humpback

<sigh>
it's the past participle (read adjective) of the verb tingle.

-joe (thou misbegotten sheep-biting moldwarp!) friday

! yourself! By putting frowzy-tingled, you are indicating (by MY rules) that frowzy modifies tingled; so I just wondered what it was, is all. [envisioning some cetacean version of a coxcomb e]

Edit: ooh, I just lurve a good argument!

can't wait until we have one...

actually, JFTR, Copyright applies fully and automagically to any creative work the moment it is created online. irregardless(sic) of losing your silly C.

-joe (©©©©©) friday

gimme a ©, a bouncy ©

b©a©h©
© © © ©

I'm getting © sick.

Me too, Anna. Your Faldage has offered to send me a keyboard with a encircled "c" on it if I send him $100 in cash. Until then he says I should addendum every post with "copyright pending"

What do you think?

[warning: copyright pending]

Not to change the subject or anything but, unlike other purported longest x-type words in English, the longest word that does not repeat a letter does have a length limit.

ses·qui·pe·da·lian·ism noun
Definition:
long word: a word with many letters or syllables
[Early 17th century. < Latin sesquipedalis "measuring one and one-half feet" < sesqui- (see sesqui-) + ped- "foot"]

I thought this was a word made up by Zed , but it is a real word.
Not all different vowels, but long.Would there be a shorter word for: a word with many letters or syllables?

> Would there be a shorter word for: a word with many letters or syllables?

why? I love this sort of linguistic onomatopoeia!

the one we should be looking for is a shorter word for abbreviation....

>linguistic onomatopoeia!

I like the term autological that Hofstadter used for self-descriptive words (and heterological for non-self-descriptive).

-joe (Grelling) friday

edit: list of autological words

like abr.?

You're right, sesquipidalianism is a funny word. But to get to write it without copy/paste will take some time for me.
(if ever)

And heterologicality? Oof!

Hofstadter poses the question: Is 'heterological' heterological?

Suppose 'heterological' is heterological, then 'heterological' does not have the property for which it stands. But, the property for which it stands is the property of being heterological, that is, 'heterological' does not have the property of being heterological. However, if 'heterological' is not heterological it has the property for which it stands. But, the property for which it stands is the property of being heterological, that is, 'heterological' is heterological.
- from Heterologicality, by Leon Bowden

-ron o.

Thus proving Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem.

Thus proving Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem.

Well, not proof in the mathematical sense, but an illustration of it perhaps.

I can't believe the word word is not on that list!

>I can't believe the word word is not on that list!

it is, in the list of autological nouns; although, strictly speaking, autological applies to an adjective or other predicate.

-joe (adjectival) friday

Oh you prescriptivist dingalinguists!

Oh you prescriptivist dingalinguists!

But, I did not prescribe anything. (I didn't even tell you that you were wrong.) You are free to say or type ennyfing you wants to. (I was just suggesting that your proposition was false.)

dingalinguists Ohmigawd--that is GREAT!

I don't know what I would choose zmjezhd. The prescription or the suggestion that my proposition would be false.
(if I had any)

Brought to you by that great defender of the moon from the wolves, Robert Hartwell Fisk.

Off topic, but from of the conversation at your link:
Interesting parallel. Te cool is often used here, not because it is a misspelling of the, but because the Dutch word 'te' means 'too'. ( te >written the same way and pronounced tuh).
And the word cool has been adopted since quite a while.Funny.

Kia ora Branshea. The Maori word 'Te' (pron: Ted without the d)
means 'the'.
Te kuri = The dog.

Te cool!