megalocomparison
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
25
Scrabble Score
16
Letters
6
Syllables
12
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
Long-range comparison; especially, far-fetched long-range comparison that cannot sufficiently demonstrate any genetic relationship.
Derogatory; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "Megalocomparison takes on any more remote relationship, where sound-correspondences are not regular and putative cognates are few, so that chance rivals genetic relationship as the explanation for perceived similarities."
- "There have been many recent broadsides on megalocomparison, and those who still think them inappropriate may find this paper a revelation[…]"
- "It seems to be part of a larger project of megalo-comparison whose aim is ultimately to reduce the number of language families in the world to a much smaller number than is now normally accepted."
Etymology
From megalo- + comparison, coined by Matisoff (1990) in a critique of Joseph Greenberg's "mass comparison" (see quotation below).