Ordinary Words 8: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.  It's one of my favourite scenes in Mary Poppins, and better yet it's the word to say when you don't know what to say.

And today, I got nothin'.  

I'm working on the fourth book in the Catrin Surovell series, and writing a book for The History Press on the hidden history of York.  I'm writing a newsletter for everyone on my mailing list, and helping create five new programmes at the University of York (which is my day job).

I'm not complaining when I write this:  to be working on so many writing projects is a dream come true.  It's just that a lot of words have flowed out of my head and out onto the page lately, and all the ones that are left are hiding.

Plus, I can't even provide the etymology for this word, delightful as it is.  To my surprise, it was made up by the songwriters and has no history beyond that.  I assumed it was part of the original Mary Poppins books, but no.  Two brothers, Robert and Richard Sherman (who also wrote 'It's a Small Word After All'), came up with it especially for the movie. 

I can't help but wonder if 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' was the result of direct inspiration, or a desperate invention by two men who had used up all their other words.  Were they too tired to use an existing word, or did they actively decide to make one up?