Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia
Pronunciation
[Hip-po-pot-o-mon-stro-ses-quip-pe-da-li-o-phob-i-a]
Etymology
Combination of elements suggesting largeness or length, deliberately forming a word likely to induce the fear it denotes: hippopotomonstro- (irregular blend [influenced by connective -o-, from French, from Latin, from Greek—connective vowel of most nouns and adjectives in combination] of hippopotamus and monstro-, from Latin monstr-, monstrum, monster) + sesquippedalio- (incorrectly formed from sesquipedalian or Latin sesquipedalia, things one and a half feet long) + -phobia, from phobia
Noun
The fear of long words
Synonyms
sesquipedalophobia
In the book Useless Knowledge, this enormous word was misinterpreted by the authors as two words, causing them to list the fear of long words as the following:
- hippopotomonstroses
- and quippedaliophobia
further distortions of an already very incorrectly formed word (see Etymology above)!
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia
[Hip-po-pot-o-mon-stro-ses-quip-pe-da-li-o-phob-i-a]
Etymology
Combination of elements suggesting largeness or length, deliberately forming a word likely to induce the fear it denotes: hippopotomonstro- (irregular blend [influenced by connective -o-, from French, from Latin, from Greek—connective vowel of most nouns and adjectives in combination] of hippopotamus and monstro-, from Latin monstr-, monstrum, monster) + sesquippedalio- (incorrectly formed from sesquipedalian or Latin sesquipedalia, things one and a half feet long) + -phobia, from phobia
Noun
The fear of long words
Synonyms
sesquipedalophobia
In the book Useless Knowledge, this enormous word was misinterpreted by the authors as two words, causing them to list the fear of long words as the following:
- hippopotomonstroses
- and quippedaliophobia
further distortions of an already very incorrectly formed word (see Etymology above)!
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia
Labels: joke
This entry was posted by Eddy Fahmi, on
Wednesday, July 21, 2004.
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