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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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what is my favorite word? pull-ease! but here is a word that I really like: transpontine - situated on the other side of the bridge try this at your next board meeting, when the chairman brings up his favorite topic for the nth consecutive meeting: "That issue is transpontine in the extreme." meaning that you will cross that bridge when you come to it, when actually it has long since been crossed. (I much prefer this to "overcome by events" [OBE]. : ) http://members.aol.com/tsuwm/
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stranger
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My favourite word at the moment is "disingenuous". It's much less direct, but still as effective as saying simply that someone is a liar: "It's disingenuous to suggest that I neglected to perform that duty".
Very nice in company emails. Will have most people rushing for the dictionary.
I subscribe to the same theory of wordplay that The Police did in their song "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da": "when their eloquence escapes me, their logic ties me up and rapes me"; I love tying people in knots with vocabulary.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>I love tying people in knots with vocabulary.
A noble pursuit, and one I also enjoy, but you should be warned: That's not likely to happen here :)
A word I like a lot these days is "dissemble."
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old hand
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old hand
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The use of "suppose" in phrases like "you are not supposed to walk on the lawn" has always thrilled me as a similarly indirect English way of giving orders.
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stranger
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stranger
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I read recently that fear of palindromes is called "aibohphobia".
Makes it hard to describe your condition to your doctor...
Can anyone confirm or deny this?
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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I wonder what the fear of anagrams would be?
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#1670
05/09/2000 11:25 AM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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... and the fear of acronyms? and acronym redundancies?
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Carpal Tunnel
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I thought that all fears had been named, but I guess I was wrong! Here are some that have been: agyiophobia - fear of crossing busy streets amaxophobia - an abnormal fear of sitting or riding in a vehicle blennophobia - a morbid fear of slime deipnosophobia - a fear of dinner conversation epistemophobia - the fear of knowledge ergophobia - an abnormal fear of work gamophobia - the fear of sexuality gephyrophobia - a terror of crossing bridges hagiophobia - the fear of saints [pretty rare, I'd guess] pantophobia - the fear of everything taphephobia - an abnormal(?) fear of being buried alive and of course: phobophobia - the fear of fear itself nihilphobia - the fear of nothing oh, and I almost forgot: arachibutyrophobia - the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth http://members.aol.com/tsuwm/
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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APS phobia - Acronym Phobia Syndrome phobia (or fear of APS syndrome :) ragamanphobia - fear of anagrams http://members.aol.com/tsuwm/
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member
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Love it! I've been busting myself to think of an answer to ths one. Thank you, tsuwm.
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Thank you, tsuwm. I've been busting myself to think of an answer to that post!
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Please don't ask me why I replied to this twice. It's embarassing. Sorry.
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#1676
05/11/2000 10:24 AM
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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So is there a word for fear of repetition (it happens to us all as we get older).
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#1677
05/11/2000 10:24 AM
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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So is there a word for fear of repetition (it happens to us all as we get older).
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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what a chintzy way to up your post count! http://members.aol.com/tsuwm/
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Reminds me of dejanesia, which I think I used to have.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Reminds me of dejanesia which I think I used to have.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>... and the fear of acronyms? and acronym redundancies?<
FOAphobia, and FOARphobia
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I love the sound of mellifluous, onomatopoeia, and
hemidemisemiquaver.
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Carpal Tunnel
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>So is there a word for fear of repetition (it happens to us all as we get older). the fear of growing old: gerascophobia http://members.aol.com/tsuwm/
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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here's one I suffer from: psellismophobia tutu... can you guess what this is? <g> http://members.aol.com/tsuwm/
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Pooh-Bah
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>psellismophobia?
Is it something to do with smelly socks???
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The fear that your smelly socks will be flea-infested? (Greek root: psylla = flea) ???
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stranger
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stranger
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Psellismophobia: is that f-f-f-f-fear of st-st-st-stammering or, more generally, a fear of misenunciation?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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you got it, meta4. Psellism is the technical term for stuttering, stammering or lisping. http://members.aol.com/tsuwm/
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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my cat suffers from psyllaphobia! (thanks davidx) http://members.aol.com/tsuwm/
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#1690
06/29/2000 12:08 PM
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addict
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I was thinking about "favourite words" today (for no particular reason) and two words came to mind which to me sound exactly like what they describe (I can't remember the term for this):
braggodocio (which has such a swagger to it)
triste (the drawn-out vowel sound seems so sad)
Anything to get this thread active again!
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stranger
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stranger
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One could say that were onomatopeia - but I think that word's reserved more for things like 'bump', 'woof', 'drip' or 'broomhandle'.
One of my favourite words is the rather innocous 'shelf'. It has a great element of support to it....I think. 'Luggage' is great too. And 'timber'. Oh! I could go on for hours!
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Pooh-Bah
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>timber
There was a big discussion in one of the later Monty Pythons (sorry to MP phobics here, just sleep awhile) about "woody" and "tinny" words. I think it is true - all the best words are woody words.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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and for those who are MP-philes (and those who are merely curious), here is a link to "The Woody Sketch"... http://www.montypython.net/scripts/wood.php3
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#1694
06/30/2000 12:23 PM
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addict
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Heard on our national public broadcaster this morning in their 'Word of the Day' segment, and apparently coined by an Australian musician:
Anatadiphobia [spelling uncertain]: the fear that somewhere a duck is watching you.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Anatidae is the Latin name for the family of swimming birds -- ducks, geese, swans, etc. A little Latin +phobia will give you the fear of everything!
pantophobia - the fear of everything
nihilphobia - the fear of nothing
phobophobia - the fear of fear itself
deipnosophobia - a fear of dinner conversation
arachibutyrophobia - the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>Anything to get this thread active again!
and thanks for that, paulb!
here's a few more of my fav's:
(a)estivate - to pass the summer in a state of torpor
colporteur - a peddler of religious books (not to be confused with Cole Porter)
coprolite - fossilized excrement
feckless - ineffectual; worthless
muliebrity - femininity
pixilated - slightly unbalanced mentally, bemused
vomitory - the entrance piercing the banks of seats of a stadium
and, of course:
sesquipedalian - given to the use of long words
[try running that through the spelcheque]
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Here's a great one from the AWAD archives. It is from Oct.
7th, 1994 :
ddiippllooppiiaapphhoobbiiaa ---fear of double vision!
There is a wonderful discussion notice here, on just this
topic.
And, Tsuwm (good heavens, now I'm trying to make your name
into sue 'em), on Oct. 4th of that year, begins the
search for the correct word for the fear of p-nut butter
sticking to the roof of your mouth, if you haven't seen
it already.
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Carpal Tunnel
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>good heavens, now I'm trying to make your name into sue 'em yes, that is approximately how it is pronounced. 
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#1699
06/30/2000 11:31 PM
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>>Psellism is the technical term for stuttering, stammering or lisping<< What a shame!  Given the posts above I was really hoping psellismophobia was going to be the fear of misspelling! 
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stranger
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stranger
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yeah, why not.
one of my favourite words is: diaphanous.
saw it first in 'heart of darkness' by jc. loved the usage there
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#1701
07/01/2000 12:00 PM
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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>>'heart of darkness' by jc<<
I know I should know this, but who is jc?
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Carpal Tunnel
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James Conrad:
We felt meditative, and fit for nothing but placid staring. The day was ending in a serenity of still and exquisite brilliance. The water shone pacifically; the sky, without a speck, was a benign immensity of unstained light; the very mist on the Essex marsh was like a gauzy and radiant fabric, hung from the wooded rises inland, and draping the low shores in diaphanous folds. Only the gloom to the west, brooding over the upper reaches, became more sombre every minute, as if angered by the approach of the sun.
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Carpal Tunnel
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>>James Conrad:<<
Thanks. I have to ask this, Tsuwm:
do you have an amazing memory, or an amazing (to me at least) facility w/ the Internet, or both??
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