Saturday, 12 January 2013

alterFACT: hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia - Is a fear of long words


hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia - Is a fear of long words. Albeit, the concept itself is a joke and no such phobia really exists, but it still is quite humorous. Here's the explanation of the word from wikipedia:

"Hippopoto – "big" due to its allusion to the Greek-derived word hippopotamus (though this is derived as hippo- "horse" compounded with potam-os "river", so originally meaning "river horse"; according to the Oxford English, "hippopotamine" has been construed as large since 1847, so this coinage is reasonable); -monstr- is from Latin words meaning "monstrous", -o- is a noun-compounding vowel; -sesquipedali- comes from "sesquipedalian" meaning a long word (literally "a foot and a half long" in Latin), -o- is a noun-compounding vowel, and -phobia means "fear". Note: This was mentioned on the first episode of Brainiac Series Five as one of Tickle's Teasers."



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