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The Irony of hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia (the fear of long words)


Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia is the fear of long words.[1] No, I'm not kidding. It's as if the creator(s) of this word was (were) playing a cruel joke on those whom suffer from it. I imagine the conversation went a little something like this:

Bruno: "What's next?"

Jerome: "Fear of long words."

Bruno: "Alright, so, something simple, I guess..."

Jerome: "No, let's mess with them and come up with the longest word possible. Kind of like supercalifragilisticexpealidotioius."

Bruno: "Oh, you're bad."

Jerome: "I know."

Bruno: "I like it!"

Jerome. "Let's draw a bunch of random letters out of a hat and see what we come up with."

Bruno: "How many letters are you thinking?"

Jerome: "Including 'phobia,' I'm thinking there should be 35 letters."

::draw a bunch of letters::

Bruno: "So, what do we have?"

Jerome: "Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia. Ah, that's perfect!"

Bruno: "Indeed it is."

::both let out simultaneous evil laughs::


[1] I’m thinking about coming up with a new word, which will mean “fear of short words”. I’m thinking “zy” will suffice, but it may be too lengthy. Perhaps “q” will do the trick.

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