| wdyhollywood
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| 659026. Tue Jan 19, 2010 7:40 am |
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| Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia... the irony of it's meaning is sublime |
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| masterfroggy
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| 659044. Tue Jan 19, 2010 7:58 am |
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| wdyhollywood wrote: | | Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia... the irony of it's meaning is sublime |
It would be were it not misspelt.
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia
Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia |
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| wdyhollywood
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| 659059. Tue Jan 19, 2010 8:07 am |
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| Ahhh the downside of using dictionary.com for spelling |
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| Neotenic
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| 659078. Tue Jan 19, 2010 8:32 am |
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I think it's a word that has been deliberately constructed to be funny (although whether or not it has been successful I will leave to your discretion), but has no real meaning or application.
Not least because a fear of words is 'logophobia', and there's no 'logo', or any variation of that within the compound word.
I'm no cunning linguist, but I would have thought that 'megalogophobia' would probably be closer to the mark. |
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| wdyhollywood
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| 659119. Tue Jan 19, 2010 9:47 am |
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| Neotenic wrote: | I think it's a word that has been deliberately constructed to be funny (although whether or not it has been successful I will leave to your discretion), but has no real meaning or application.
Not least because a fear of words is 'logophobia', and there's no 'logo', or any variation of that within the compound word.
I'm no cunning linguist, but I would have thought that 'megalogophobia' would probably be closer to the mark. |
It does seem to be quite genuine, Sesquipedalophobia is the other version aparently but I can't seem to find any documentation to say that it was created as either a joke or for deliberate irony.
However i believe that the phobia was first coined in America |
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| exnihilo
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| 659197. Tue Jan 19, 2010 1:54 pm |
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| The OUP (USA) makes it quite clear it's a "stunt word". It is a cobbled together nonsense of a word, taking perfectly valid words and ramming them together with no reference to their actual meaning and then having an arbitrary meaning nailed on to the whole. And another reference from The Times which loses some credibility for citing the OED's principle (sic) lexicographer. |
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| Neotenic
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| 659257. Tue Jan 19, 2010 3:13 pm |
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| To comment on that would be against my principals. |
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| Neotenic
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| 659378. Tue Jan 19, 2010 7:49 pm |
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| Quote: |
The OUP (USA) makes it quite clear it's a "stunt word" |
Like 'defenestration', yes?
;-) |
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| zomgmouse
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| 659398. Tue Jan 19, 2010 8:36 pm |
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| A friend informed me recently that the word "thusly" is just such a "stunt" word, created to ridicule hypercorrective grammarians believing that "thus" cannot be used adverbially, which, it turns out, it can. |
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| Zarafa
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| 676314. Fri Feb 26, 2010 2:41 pm |
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This somehow seemed apt.
"The Grammarian and the Dervish", from Tales of the Dervishes, ed. Idries Shah
| Quote: | One dark night a dervish was passing a dry well when he heard a cry for help from below. 'What is the matter?' he called down.
'I am a grammarian, and I have unfortunately fallen, due to my ignorance of the path, into this deep well, in which I am now all but immobilized,' responded the other.
'Hold, friend, and I'll fetch a ladder and a rope,' said the dervish.
'One moment, please!' said the grammarian. 'Your grammar and diction are faulty; be good enough to amend them.'
'If that is so much more important than the essentials,' shouted the dervish, 'you had best stay where you are until I have learned to speak properly.'
And he went his way. |
Edit: I omitted the word 'passing' the first time around...I suppose there could be some deep mystical meaning in the phrase "One dark night a dervish was a dry well," but not in this story! |
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| Jenny
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| 676437. Fri Feb 26, 2010 9:58 pm |
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| I know that grammarian got out of the well somehow - at any rate, his manner of speaking bears a strong resemblance to that of some of our regular posters. |
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| Neuromancer
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| 837768. Wed Aug 10, 2011 6:29 pm |
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| Neotenic wrote: | I think it's a word that has been deliberately constructed to be funny (although whether or not it has been successful I will leave to your discretion), but has no real meaning or application.
Not least because a fear of words is 'logophobia', and there's no 'logo', or any variation of that within the compound word.
I'm no cunning linguist, but I would have thought that 'megalogophobia' would probably be closer to the mark. |
Is this not another example of the common mixing of latin and greek words, or part thereof? Hippopoto- (Greek) monstro- (latin) sesqui- (latin) pedalio- (latin) phobia (greek). Such mixings always produce problems - such as the well known plurification of octopus (greek) to octopi (latin) instead of octopodes (greek). |
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| Jenny
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| 837870. Thu Aug 11, 2011 9:04 am |
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| Good point. We like a good point around here - welcome Neuromancer :-) |
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| samivel
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| 837912. Thu Aug 11, 2011 10:48 am |
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| CB27
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| 837921. Thu Aug 11, 2011 11:01 am |
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Looks like a scotch egg talking to a coxinha :)
I'm peckish now... |
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