Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Talking about Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.

No I am not making that word up! It really does exist. And no, it has absolutely nothing to do with Hippopotamuses either. Although not a serious ailment, many people do suffer from it. I obviously I don’t, (some would say I suffer from the other extreme though!) but I do suffer from two related phobias: such as pronouncing and spelling ones like this!
Yes, according to a question in the Herald Sun Quiz page on September 15, hippopotomonstroses quippedaliophobia is the “fear of long words”.
As said above, I am happy to use long words once I know what they mean and thus I don’t fear them once I know how to at least pronounce them. (Just don’t ask me how long it took me to properly pronounce hyperbole!)
What about you? Do you fear long words, by either skipping them or ignoring them? Or do you embrace them enough to at least find out what they mean, even if you never use them again, like I suspect with the above word?
Putting this into general terms, what do you do with things that are unusual or strange to you in everyday life? Ignore them completely, work around them, embrace them or simply deal with them in the appropriate manner when they arrive and then move on?
Just something simple to think on for today! Have a great one too!

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