WASHINGTON — The nation marked the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on Saturday before most of its residents had finished saying “semiquincentennial,” according to figures released Monday by the Continental Nomenclature Office, which estimated that 61.3 percent of attempts to pronounce the word were still underway when the anniversary passed.
The word, which has seven syllables and is stressed on the fifth, sem-ee-kwin-sen-TEN-ee-ul, has been in heavy public use since the start of the anniversary year. The Office said most unfinished attempts had stalled on the third syllable, “quin,” which Harold Penmarch, the Office’s chief registrar, described as “the part where people lose their nerve.”
“We gave the public a full year and a word with a sign on it that said where to put the stress,” Penmarch said, reached by phone at his office, where he said he could hear a coworker in the next room still working on the second syllable. “A lot of people got to ‘semi’ and just stood there. Others went straight to ‘centennial’ and hoped no one would notice the 100 years they left out.”
The Office’s survey identified several households in which an attempt begun on New Year’s Day was still in progress on the Fourth of July, the speaker having reached “kwin” in late March and pausing there through the spring to regroup. In Corrin, Neb., a man who began saying the word in September 2024, to get a head start, reported Monday that he was on “sen” and expected to finish in time for the 300th. In Hollis Bend, Wis., a family that completed the word in unison at 11:59 p.m. on July 3 said it was unable to celebrate because, by the time anyone had breath for it, the anniversary was the following afternoon.
Dr. Marjorie Teller, director of the Center for Measured Outcomes, said the Center recorded 14.6 million complete pronunciations nationwide in the first half of the year, an average of 0.04 per resident, with a margin of error of 1.2 syllables. Of the completed attempts, 38.7 percent included an extra syllable not found in the dictionary, most commonly a second “ten.”
“The data show the public is fully committed to the word and does not know where it ends,” Teller said. “Further study is needed.” She said the Center had applied for funding to study whether the shorter alternative, “the 250th,” is being pronounced correctly, and that early indications are that people are saying “the two-hundred-and-fif—” and then stopping to wave at someone.
In January, the Office approved an official abbreviation, “the Big Two-Five-Oh,” for residents who wished to refer to the anniversary within the same calendar year. Penmarch said the abbreviation was retired in May after a pilot study found that it took longer to say than the word it was replacing, because every speaker paused after “Oh” to see whether anyone had laughed.
Penmarch said the Office has begun preparing the public for the 300th anniversary in 2076, which will be a tercentennial, a word two syllables shorter. Practice sessions are scheduled to begin in 2061.
“We think it’s very doable,” Penmarch said. “The trick is to start on the ’ter’ and just keep—”
Glenn Whitacre filed this report by phone from the Amtrak quiet car, where the call was ended by a conductor at the word “tercentennial.”