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Joined:  Feb 2008 Posts: 876 old hand |  
| old hand Joined:  Feb 2008 Posts: 876 | 
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia I came across it on a FunTrivia quiz, but had never seen it before, and guessed wrongly, to boot! Which part is the "long word" part?!?!? :0)
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Joined:  Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 Carpal Tunnel |  
|   Carpal Tunnel Joined:  Dec 2000 Posts: 13,803 | 
Sesquipedali-  It means foot and a half, referring to the length of the word as written. |  |  |  
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Joined:  Aug 2005 Posts: 3,290 Carpal Tunnel |  
|   Carpal Tunnel Joined:  Aug 2005 Posts: 3,290 | 
HippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobiaHmm, oughtn't it to be hippopotomomonstrosesquipedaliphobia? And then some peevologists might complain that it mixes Latin and Hellenic, a must-never-do-ism. I guess you could replace monstro with terato, but I am at a loss on what to do with sesquipedali. Hmm. Just one minute. ICLIU (link ημιολιασμος (hēmioliasmos) is the same as Latin sesqui 'one and a half'. And, I guess, podali for the foot part. (Latin sesquipedalis means 'foot and a half (long)' but doesn't really work without words. So, verbo or lexico needs to go in there. So, how about hippopotomoteratohemioliasmopodalilexicophobia? Or in English fear of river-horse-monster-foot-and-a-half-(long)-words. 
 Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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Joined:  Dec 2006 Posts: 956 old hand |  
|   old hand Joined:  Dec 2006 Posts: 956 | 
Scared of big things with sequi feet? Sorry, I have no eye deer.
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Joined:  Jul 2005 Posts: 270 enthusiast |  
|   enthusiast Joined:  Jul 2005 Posts: 270 | 
No cheating, fear of long words I believe. Certainly one of the funnier terms around.   |  |  |  
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Joined:  Jan 2002 Posts: 1,526 veteran |  
|   veteran Joined:  Jan 2002 Posts: 1,526 | 
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia I came across it on a FunTrivia quiz, but had never seen it before, and guessed wrongly, to boot! Which part is the "long word" part?!?!? :0)
I think fear of long words might be just sesquipedaliophobia . But I don't see what "monster river horse" adds to it - a fear of verbose giant hippos?  Fear of abnormally long-winded hippos?  
Last edited by TheFallibleFiend; 08/06/2008 7:14 PM.
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Joined:  Feb 2008 Posts: 876 old hand |  
| old hand Joined:  Feb 2008 Posts: 876 | 
Well, it is both of them. Mine might be slightly misspelt in the middle somewhere (it was copy/pasted), but I saw both of them in looking it up. It just seemed so strange with the "hippo" thing starting it off! I was sure it had something to do with horses. I'd never seen it before, and wondered if anyone else had. :0) |  |  |  
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Joined:  Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 Carpal Tunnel |  
|   Carpal Tunnel Joined:  Apr 2000 Posts: 10,542 | 
>slightly misspelt in the middle somewhere well, yeah! what's that second pp  doing there, anyways -- to make the word even longer?! fwiw,   hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia -joe (not one of my fears!) friday |  |  |  
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Joined:  Feb 2008 Posts: 876 old hand |  
| old hand Joined:  Feb 2008 Posts: 876 |  |  |  |  | 
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