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Angela Mulholland, CTVNews.ca Published Tuesday, June 4, 2013 12:32PM EDT Last Updated Tuesday, June 4, 2013 12:58PM EDT

The Germans are famous for many things; fine motors cars and excellent sausage, for example. But it`s their fondness for multisyllabic, compound words that holds the most fascination for linguists. In fact, the Germans have even cheekily created their own compound word to describe compound words: bandwurmwrter. It means "tapeworm words."

Now, it would seem one of the longest words ever strung together in German is being tossed not because its unpronounceable, which it most definitely is for non-Germanic speakers, but because it's simply obsolete.

Rindfleischetikettierungsberwachungsaufgabenbertragungsgesetz is a term given to a 1999 law that regulated the testing and labelling of beef.

In a close-to-literal translation, in English the term means, Beef labelling supervision duties delegation law and was coined following the BSE-mad cow scare. While it wasnt found in any German dictionaries, the term was used in official government documents.

The 63-letter word was such a mouthful that it had to be shortened to RkReAG easier to type, perhaps, but no more pronounceable.

Now, the German Press Agency dpa reports that a regional parliament has repealed the beef labelling law, following the lifting of a European Union recommendation. So Rindfleischetikettierungsberwachungsaufgabenbertragungsgesetz is old news.

Now the search is on for the next longest German word.

The longest word in the standard German dictionary is Kraftfahrzeug-Haftpflichtversicherung which is the word for motor vehicle liability insurance. But at 36 letters, its rather puny. Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften, a touch longer at 39 letters, is the languages longest non-dictionary word. It means an insurance company that provides legal protection.

At 80 letters, the longest word ever composed in German is "Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizittenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft," meaning, the "Association for Subordinate Officials of the Head Office Management of the Danube Steamboat Electrical Services." But its a coinage of strung together more for fun than necessity and it's not found in any dictionary.

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Germans bid 'Auf Wiedersehen' to longest word