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#1664 04/28/00 06:39 PM
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tsuwm Offline OP
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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]. : )


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#1665 05/04/00 04:22 AM
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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.


#1666 05/04/00 06:42 PM
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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."


#1667 05/05/00 06:52 AM
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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.



#1668 05/09/00 02:57 AM
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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?


#1669 05/09/00 06:54 AM
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I wonder what the fear of anagrams would be?


#1670 05/09/00 11:25 AM
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... and the fear of acronyms? and acronym redundancies?


#1671 05/09/00 02:12 PM
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tsuwm Offline OP
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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

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#1672 05/09/00 02:21 PM
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tsuwm Offline OP
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APS phobia - Acronym Phobia Syndrome phobia
(or fear of APS syndrome :)
ragamanphobia - fear of anagrams

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#1673 05/11/00 07:49 AM
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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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