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  1. n. The fear of long words. It is literally the hippopotamus- and monster-related fear of very long words.

Examples

  • “Sorry for the sesquipedalianism, and my apologies to those who suffer from hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia. heh heh heh .... love ya Rex, even with all yer far right winger warts that you grew during the Bush Years.”

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  • guardgirliexoxo The fear of long words. As in "he couldn't say onomatopoeia because he had hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia." Jun 9, 2009

  • sionnach And if that hippo should chomp your red-nosed reindeer, it's just another case of rhodorhinorangifericide. May 22, 2009

  • mollusque The earliest instance I can find is

    ". . . arachibutyrophobia, fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth, and hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia, fear of long words!"
    --Dennis Coon, 1991, Essentials of Psychology: Exploration and Application, p. 505
    Nov 15, 2008

  • michaelchang — fear of long words. Hippopoto- "big" due to its allusion to the Greek-derived word hippopotamus (though this is derived as hippo- "horse" compounded with potam-os "river", so originally meaning "river horse"; according to the Oxford English, hippopotamine has been construed as large since 1847, so this coinage is reasonable); -monstr- is from Latin words meaning "monstrous", -o- is a pseudo-Greek noun-compounding vowel; -sesquipedali- comes from "sesquipedalian" meaning a long word (literally "a foot and a half long" in Latin), -o- is a pseudo-Greek noun-compounding vowel, and -phobia means "fear". Note: This was mentioned on the first episode of Brainiac Series Five as one of Tickle's Teasers. Nov 21, 2007

  • valse A concept that might seem absurd to a Wordie...and obviously a joke word, by the way. Don't know who came up with it. Jan 4, 2007

‘hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia’ has been looked up 2188 times, loved by 6 people, added to 15 lists, commented on 5 times, and is not a valid Scrabble word.