Phobias

[RCorrigan]

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliaophobia ....... am I afraid of hippos or ??????????

<Do I need A Signature or will an X do?>

 

[Stella740pl]

ESquared,

It's a possibility with merits.

If you do a Google search, you will find even less links for ...sesquipedalio... with one 'p'.

I found one(!) serious mention of it, in a book (2003) presentation that one Australian company sells among psychology books for secondary education. Cannot comment on the merits of the book, but it is supposed to be a text book, not a scientific article that might have originated the term.

Still, I don't think it's a real term. Wouldn't bet on it, though, but lack of serious reference is one sign.

 

[ESquared]

I am referring to the "real" word sesquipedalian. It seems like the people who invented the fake one didn't know how to spell that, and incorporated it into their made-up word incorrectly. And perhaps pedaliophobia could have been pedaliaphobia.

 

[Stella740pl]

Oh, yes, of course then. There was no a question about it, I guess.

This quote is from this link

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

that I posted above:

Etymology

Combination of elements suggesting largeness or length, deliberately forming a word likely to induce the fear it denotes: hippopotomonstro- (irregular blend [influenced by connective -o-, from French, from Latin, from Greek—connective vowel of most nouns and adjectives in combination] of hippopotamus and monstro-, from Latin monstr-, monstrum, monster) + sesquippedalio- ([COLOR=red]incorrectly formed from [i]sesquipedalian[/i][/color] or Latin sesquipedalia, things one and a half feet long) + -phobia, from phobia.

Red accent is mine.