Today's topic needs no introduction. We all remember the catchy theme song Supercalifragilisticoespialidoso from the 1964 film Mary Poppins, played by Julie Andrews and Dick van Dyke and composed by brothers Richard and Robert Sherman. Who more and who less had to fight for a while to be able to correctly pronounce this word worthy of the best tongue twister.
That is why it is noteworthy that the authors of the theme (and the Disney company to which the film rights belonged) were the subject of a lawsuit for violating the right of property intellectual, based on the fact that the so-called term was not original, but had already been used in a song, no more and no less than in 1949.
Actually the term the plaintiffs used was Supercalafajalistickespeealadojus (remember that in English, the Disney theme was titled Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious). It seems clear that, although there is some difference between the two words, it is difficult to maintain that the Sherman brothers came up with a term so unconventional and so similar to that of the 1949 theme. However, this is what the Disney composers maintained, that They claimed that they had composed the theme in two minutes, and gave the following explanation as to why they came up with this curious word (it is somewhat complicated to translate from English so that it does not lose its meaning):
Sometimes when you play make up nonsense words for kids you get an obnoxious sounding word (obnoxious ). That, (obnoxious ), is an ugly word, so we put atroz (atrocious) which sounds very English. We start with atrocious, that can make you look smart and be precocious ). We had precocious and atrocious and we wanted something super colossal, which is very cheesy. So we are left with the super and add the nonsense term califragilistic, that doesn't mean anything. And so the theme was born.
I don't think the court that had to try the case was very impressed with this explanation, and in fact if the lawsuit was dismissed it was not because the judge believed what the brothers said Sherman. No, the reason why the plaintiffs were ruled against is even more curious:during the trial various documents were produced showing that, although the Sherman brothers had not been the first to use this word, it turned out that the authors of the 1949 issue weren't either.
In fact, the first known use of the word Supercalafajalistickespeealadojus dated 1931 and had been published in a Syracuse University newspaper, The Syracuse Daily Orange, on March 10 of that year. The author of the article was named Helen Herman. This, reflecting on the term that she had invented, said that it included all the words to express something wonderful and that «although it is quite long and exhausts before reaching its end, once you complete it you have said in a single word what you normally would. it would take four paragraphs to describe.”
Regardless of what happened with this curious lawsuit over one of the most popular songs from the Disney factory, the truth is that in Anglo-Saxon countries the term has ended up being incorporated into the language as synonymous with amazing or wonderful. As an example, two examples of recent publications in the United States.
If Trump is going to start trade wars and raise tariffs, he should explain how his supercalifragilistic deals will both punish these countries and make goods cheaper for American consumers.
—David Harsanyi, Times Record News (Wichita Falls, Texas) , 12 Mar. 2016
For a real good time, just tell your parents to take you to any one of the supercalifragilistically spectacular places listed below.
—Key, Feb. 7, 1987
This would not be the only controversial issue that caused the Disney film. Well known is the tug-of-war that the author of the original novel, P.L. Travers and Walt Disney on the sale of the rights for the film adaptation of the book and how it should be. To the point that there is a recent movie that deals with this complicated relationship, starring Emma Thomson and Tom Hanks... but that's another story.
I leave you with the video of the song.