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What is sesquipedaliophobia?

Updated: 8/16/2019

Wiki User

∙ 14y ago

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It is the fear of long words. Also spelled sesquipedalophobia. It is recognized in formal writings.

It come from the word sesquipedalian which is a long word or a person who uses long words.

A synonym is hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia which is controversial and itself derived from sesquipedaliophobia. It takes the Greek-derived word hippopotamus (hippo-"horse" compounded with potam-os "river", originally meaning "river horse") and combines it with monstr from Latin monstrum (monster), the Latin sesquipedali, and the Greek phobia (fear). It is intended to exaggerate the length of the word itself and the idea of the size of the words being feared.

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∙ 14y ago

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Q: What is sesquipedaliophobia?

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What is hippomonstrosesquipedaliophobia?

Ironically, it is the fear of long words.It's actually spelled "hippomonstrosesquipedaliophobia". Only one 'p' in the 'sesquipedali' part of the word (coming from the word 'sesquipedalian' meaning long word.) but yes, it is ironically 'the fear of long words'.It is supposed to mean "the fear of long words" but actually sesquipediophobia means that. As a genuine long word, it is probably a good candidate for floccinaucinihilpilification.__________________To me, it looks like the fear of visible [mostro] seven legged [sesquipedal] horses [hippo, from the Greek hippos]. Haven't seen one of those in an age. Only the invisible ones are common nowadays. Kidding aside, sesquipedalian means multi-syllabled, so this word is used to describe a fear of long words. But the word is not particularly satisfying to me. I agree that the application of floccinaucinihilpilification is in order. If we are going to eschew obfuscation we may as well have mirth and regalement while doing it.

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