the wider the scope, the more explicit you need to get to disambiguate the meaning of something. long variable names are just a hint that your scope is too wide

the wider the scope, the more explicit you need to get to disambiguate the meaning of something. long variable names are just a hint that your scope is too wide and a wide scope usually means: - high coupling - lack of encapsulation - action at a distance - wrong level of detail Therefore it's a code smell. Imagine we referred to each other as "multicellular organism from the kingdom animalia phylum chordata clade synapsida class mammalia order primates suborder haplohrini family hominidae genus homo species homo sapiens sapiens".