When I was in 7th grade I distinctly remember being asked to find a word that nobody had ever heard of and give a report on its origin. Hippopotomonstrosesquipidaliophobia is the word I found. Needless to say that I not only had found a word nobody had heard of but also one that nobody could pronounce, not even the teacher. It was the proudest moment of my young life. Since then I've never used Hippopotomonstrosesquipidaliophobia in an essay and I've never used Hippopotomonstrosesquipidaliophobia while speaking because I've never been able to spell it correctly and I've never been able to pronounce it; yet it remains to this day my favorite word. There are two things that are terribly ironic about my choice of words. One: when I was learning to read I hated long words that I couldn't pronounce. Two: Hippopotomonstrosesquipidaliophobia is the fear of long words, and consequently the word itself is very very veeeerrrrryyyy long. Like I said its a little bit ironic.
If Hippopotomonstrosesquipidaliophobia had a taste I'd have to say that it tasted like the candy off of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. You know the one that the gum girl eats?The candy seemed like it could be innocent but look what happened to Violet... she was turned into a blueberry. Hippopotomonstrosesquipidaliophobia might look innocent at first, long yes, but easy to sound out if the time were taken. Unfortunately once you've actually put it in your mouth something goes wrong and you can't spit it out, leaving you with a mouthful of jumbled syllables.
So that in a nutshell is why Hippopotomonstrosesquipidaliophobia is my favorite word.
Oh and ps. if I had taken the time to spell Hippopotomonstrosesquipidaliophobia out every single time I'd be writing this blog for forever .... I love copy and paste.
If Hippopotomonstrosesquipidaliophobia had a taste I'd have to say that it tasted like the candy off of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. You know the one that the gum girl eats?The candy seemed like it could be innocent but look what happened to Violet... she was turned into a blueberry. Hippopotomonstrosesquipidaliophobia might look innocent at first, long yes, but easy to sound out if the time were taken. Unfortunately once you've actually put it in your mouth something goes wrong and you can't spit it out, leaving you with a mouthful of jumbled syllables.
So that in a nutshell is why Hippopotomonstrosesquipidaliophobia is my favorite word.
Oh and ps. if I had taken the time to spell Hippopotomonstrosesquipidaliophobia out every single time I'd be writing this blog for forever .... I love copy and paste.
Do you ever wonder who comes up with these things? I'd love to pull apart this word and guess at the origin. First of all, hippopoto-- hippopotamus, can be traced to Latin, Greek, and perhaps Egyptian: "river horse" or "behemoth." "Monstros": meaning abnormality or strange. I'm lost in the whole "sesquippedalio"--maybe something that goes back to words? ("Quip," perhaps). And phobia: fear.
ReplyDeleteSo combine large behemoth + abnormality + words + fear and that word makes perfect sense. Then again, you can't help but wonder if whoever created it just stuck it all together on a whim and is laughing at anyone who takes it seriously.
I want to see a dictionary now to see if this isn't really a lie. I am glad to see Instructor Roper to take apart and analyze what the word really means. I am tempted to actually use this word in my essay now. It is fun to try attempting to say it out loud. Good background knowledge about it.
ReplyDeleteI think big words are ridiculous and sometimes kind of unnecessary. I mean who would actually use that word? But then a again they are pretty fun too.
ReplyDelete