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? asked in Education & ReferenceWords & Wordplay · 1 decade ago

Was the word "Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia" made like this on purpse?

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia means the fear of long words... Did they make this word this long for the humor or does it actually need to be this long for it to make sence? Sorry if my question isn't very clear but I don't know how to word it better.

3 Answers

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  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    It's deliberately humorous, made up as follows:

    Hippopotamus-sized = huge

    Monstrous = huge

    Sesquipedalian = long-worded.

    'Sesquipedalian' is a term derived from Latin poetry, and can mean 'having very many syllables' or 'using very long words'. So 'sesquipedaliophobia' would be sufficient to mean 'fear of long words'. But it would be possible to make up something shorter, e.g. 'megalogophobia' (Greek 'big' + 'word' + 'fear').

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    Ahahahahaha.

    i saw this on the phobia list last night.

    :)

    hahaha, this question, is somehow, entertaining to me.

    ha, i love that word, it looks like Hippo. :)

    -My Answer-

    I would imagine that it is, and all the little

    words in it probablly have something to do with it.

    :)

    but, i still LOVE the word, its my new favorite.

    :)

  • 1 decade ago

    It's like the word "lisp" having an "S" in it.

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