The long word: Honorificabilitudinitatibus

The famous long word, honorificabilitudinitatibus, occurs in Loves Labours Lost, on the same page as the "A,B backwards" riddle.

It also occurs in Francis Bacon's private notebooks.

It is also found on the cover of the Northumberland Manuscript, the only document from the era on which the names of both Shakespeare and Bacon appear.

The word was not coined by Bacon (or Shakespeare). It is actually a correct Latin word, meaning 'the state of being able to achieve honors'. It occurs in several medieval texts and early books prior to its appearance in LLL, including the Latin dictionary of Ugussione, called "Magnae Derivationes", written before the invention of printing in the latter half of the twelfth century; a charter dated AD1187; in the Catholicon of Giovanni da Genova, amongst the earliest of printed books from the fifteenth century; the Complaynt of Scotland 1548-9; and in Nashe's 1599 pamphlet Lenten Stuffe.

Anti-Baconians like to make fun of Sir Edward Durning-Lawrences observation of a latin anagram of the long word, and invariably team the laughter with the claim that he thought Bacon invented the term. In fact, Durning-Lawrence claimed no such thing. Here is the first line of his Chapter X of Bacon is Shakespeare: " The long word found in Loves Labours Lost was not created by the author of the Shakespeare plays." 

So Bacon certainly didn't invent the word, but we can know for certain that he both knew of it and took a fascination in it because it appears in his private notebook, in which it is written like this:

H
HO
HON
HONO
HONOR
HONORI
HONORIF
HONORIFI
etc

There is an odd property of the word which also made it of interest to Bacon, as affording another playful instance of hiding his name in plain sight.

When the long word is written as shown below, offset to the left on successive line by four letters (as it was found in one version in Bacons notebook) a pattern emerges. It reveals the familiar signature FBACON, shown below in red and green.

                                                                                                                                               
                                                                                                                                                                H  O  N  O  R  I F I C A B I L I
                                                                                                                                            H  O  N  O  R   I   F  I    C A B  I L I T U
                                                                                                                         H  O N  O  R   I   F    I   C  A   B  I    L  I  T  U D
                                                                                                       H  O N  O R  I   F   I   C  A  B   I    L   I   T   U  D  I  N  I T A
                                                                                     H  O N O  R   I   F  I   C  A  B   I   L   I   T   U   D  I   N   I   T A  T  I B U S
                                                                  H  O N  O  R   I   F  I  C  A  B   I   L   I   T  U  D   I   N   I   T   A  T   I   B U  S
                                                H O  N O  R   I  F   I   C  A  B   I   L  I   T   U  D  I   N  I   T   A  T   I   B   U  S
                                H O N O R  I   F   I  C   A B   I   L   I   T  U  D  I   N   I  T   A  T   I  B   U  S
                H O N O R  I   F  I  C A  B   I  L   I   T   U  D  I   N  I   T  A  T   I   B  U  S
H O N O R  I   F  I  C A  B  I  L  I  T   U  D  I   N   I  T  A   T  I    B U  S