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#161596 08/17/06 05:06 AM
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What is the most preposterous word you've ever come across?

#161597 08/17/06 12:18 PM
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I


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#161598 08/17/06 01:07 PM
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Quote:

I




Wow. Deep.

#161599 08/17/06 01:34 PM
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Arachibutyrophobia.

#161600 08/17/06 06:59 PM
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Snitzlefrizzle, contributed by Laverne. Well, you didn't say it had to be a real word

Latitudinarian is one of my favorites. Sounds like it should mean a student of of the differences between equatorial and polar areas, but it actually means weak and sickly

Edited to change it to valetudinarian: Someone accorded academic honors for the study

Last edited by dalehileman; 08/18/06 04:11 PM.

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#161601 08/17/06 07:10 PM
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?and here I thought it had to do with showing latitude in attitude?

from MW-CD: latitudinarian \la-te-tu-den-er-e-en, -tyu-\ noun (1662)
: a person who is broad and liberal in standards of religious belief and conduct
latitudinarian adjective
latitudinarianism \-e-e-ni-zem\ noun
(C) 1996 Zane Publishing, Inc. and Merriam-Webster, Inc.

edit: latitudinarianism is fairly preposterous

Last edited by tsuwm; 08/17/06 07:13 PM.
#161602 08/17/06 10:45 PM
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sesquipedalian
I love that it serves as it's own example.

#161603 08/18/06 05:02 AM
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Quote:

sesquipedalian
I love that it serves as it's own example.




Reminds me of Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.

A fear of long words.

#161604 08/18/06 05:12 AM
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Quote:

Arachibutyrophobia




Ha ha! I had to google that! It's right off the prepostrometer!

#161605 08/18/06 02:06 PM
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'Twas one of the many things I've learned from tsuwm.

#161606 08/18/06 04:07 PM
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Thread edited to change it to valetudinarian


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#161607 08/18/06 06:04 PM
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Nonplussed. Its derivation is somewhat logical but appearance is lunatic.


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#161608 08/18/06 08:14 PM
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Quote:

Quote:

Arachibutyrophobia




Ha ha! I had to google that! It's right off the prepostrometer!




Thorry to dithagree with thew. It ith not prepothterouth.

Though it does remind me of the story of the story of the preacher who, during a sermon, said, "And those of you who are adulterers, may your tongue queave to the woof of youh mouf."


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#161609 08/18/06 09:15 PM
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Arachibutyrophobia.

Why would anybody fear peanut butter?


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
#161610 08/19/06 06:52 AM
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Quote:

Why would anybody fear peanut butter?




Quote:

Teenager with peanut allergy dies after a kiss. A Quebec teenager with a peanut allergy has died after kissing her boyfriend who had eaten a peanut butter sandwich hours earlier. Nov. 26 2005 Link



#161611 08/19/06 10:21 AM
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What does peanut butter have to do with spiders?

#161612 08/19/06 11:10 AM
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Quote:

Quote:

Why would anybody fear peanut butter?




Quote:

Teenager with peanut allergy dies after a kiss. A Quebec teenager with a peanut allergy has died after kissing her boyfriend who had eaten a peanut butter sandwich hours earlier. Nov. 26 2005 Link







Seriousness of peanut allergies aside, I remember that this story was debunked. It was determined that she didn't die of the peanut allergy. I can't find a reference to it right quick, though.

#161613 08/19/06 12:40 PM
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What does peanut butter have to do with spiders?




arachi, not arachNi..

(I had the some wonder.)

Last edited by etaoin; 08/19/06 12:41 PM.

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#161614 08/19/06 01:00 PM
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What does peanut butter have to do with spiders?

They share quite a few letters in Greek? The genus name for peanut is arachis (from Greek arakhis (alternate arakis) 'a kind of leguminous plant, chickling', diminutive of arakos 'legume'. Spider in Greek is arakhne. The real question, which I neglected to ask, is why the English word is incorrectly formed. The oblique cases of arakhis are formed from the stem arakhid- (e.g., the genitive is arakhidos), so the term is more pedantically formed as arachidobutyrophobia.

Full disclosure: I am not now, nor have I ever been, allergic to or afraid of peanut butter, but I now know that some people are either one or the other or both.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
#161615 08/19/06 02:21 PM
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Quote:

Seriousness of peanut allergies aside, I remember that this story was debunked. It was determined that she didn't die of the peanut allergy. I can't find a reference to it right quick, though.




I thought peanut allergies could be fatal. I had an old flatmate who had one. He refused to be in the same room as peanuts and wore his medication in a tiny capsule around his neck at all times. He told us he'd been rushed to hospital once after eating something with peanuts in it and that it was a life or death situation.

If that's correct, a peanut butter kiss of death is not impossible, is it?

#161616 08/19/06 06:14 PM
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I don't know if it's possible. All I know is that I remember seeing that it was not the case in that particular instance.

#161617 08/20/06 12:25 AM
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Peanut allergies can certainly be fatal, and some people's reactions can be set off by minimal exposure. It happens, however, that the woman who was thought to have died of a reaction following a kiss actually died of asthma.

It was an asthma attack.

#161618 08/22/06 06:52 PM
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Fo'c's'le is the most preposterous word, at least if you allow contractions to participate.

#161619 08/22/06 07:27 PM
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Fo'c's'le is the most preposterous word, at least if you allow contractions to participate.




Well, if you've got a thing against apostrophes in words, don't go anywhere Samoan - some of it words are little else but.

#161620 08/25/06 11:25 AM
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Quote:

Fo'c's'le is the most preposterous word, at least if you allow contractions to participate.




How do you say that?!

#161621 08/25/06 11:28 AM
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This is the kind of word that's probably been discussed in this word forum before, but it's new to me:

apodyopsis noun the act of mentally undressing someone.

#161622 08/25/06 12:11 PM
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Quote:

Quote:

Fo'c's'le is the most preposterous word, at least if you allow contractions to participate.




How do you say that?!



Read somewhere it is similar to as in "Your folks'll visit during holidays."


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#161623 08/30/06 06:11 PM
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By definition:

lysistrataphobia - The fear that women will subvert men and take over the world


By sound:

humuhumunukunukuapuaa - a small Hawaiian fish

fysigunkus - a person who lacks curiosity

crambazzle - a worn out old man

#161624 09/18/06 12:57 PM
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Re: lysistrataphobia

What point is there in fearing the inevitable?

#161625 09/19/06 05:35 AM
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and yet most people probably fear death


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#161626 09/19/06 10:40 PM
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I'm be anti-lysistrataphobic.

#161627 09/21/06 02:02 PM
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and yet most people probably fear death




And if you have panphobia you fear, literally, everything.

#161628 09/21/06 07:21 PM
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That sounds more like 'fear of frying'.

#161629 09/22/06 10:41 AM
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>fear of frying

He he!

Or fear of others frying! My wife's cooking often inspires that. Although, since such a fear is entirely rational, I don't know that it qualifies as a phobia.

Anyway, not sure it's a very common word. It has a Google-number of only 169.

This is the best I can find:

panphobia

<psychology> Fear of everything.

Origin: pan-+ G. Phobos, fear

(05 Mar 2000)

Source: On-Line Medical Dictionary

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