Posts Tagged: sesquipedalian

  • Image of a man in an airport lounge with a sign saying "Recombobulation Area" behind him.

    Recombobulation—pulling yourself together

    Since COVID, resilience has become a buzzword for our mental health. We are encouraged to build it, strengthen it and draw upon it. Yet when life leaves us rattled, disconcerted and thrown off kilter, we need a better idea. We need “recombobulation”. To understand it, we first need to know the story of its parent, […]

  • mage of a cow referring to post Bandwurmwörter on RINDFLEISCHETIKETTIERUNGSÜBERWACHUNGSAUFGABENÜBERTRAGUNGSGESETZ—meaning beef labeling regulation and delegation of supervision law.

    Bandwurmwörter – German long words

    The German language German (Deutsch) is a sub-language of the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Central Europe. The area it is spoken in known as the German Sprachraum. German is the official language of: Germany, Austria, several cantons of Switzerland, & Liechtenstein. It is a co-official language of: Belgium, Luxembourg, and Italy (South Tyrol). […]

  • Roman centurions Floccinaucinihilipilification is a combination of four Latin words flocci, nauci, nihili, & pilifi.

    Floccinaucinihilipilification and the Eton Latin Grammar

    One of the words in contention for the longest word in the English language is floccinaucinihilipilification. It is pronounced flahk-si-naw-si-ni-hi-li-pi-li-fi-kay-shên. Words like floccinaucinihilipilification support my idea that words don’t just develop as tools to describe what is around us. Instead people love to use words to play with language—we celebrate the exuberance of words and use […]

  • SUBJECT: Metrophobia is the fear of poetry IMAGE: student with book on their head

    Metrophobia is fear of poetry

    What stops me from publishing poetry on this site is that we all suffer from poetry anxiety. As soon as people offer to read you some poetry we nervously await over-earnest sentimentality. I found a word on several Internet sites to describe this: metrophobia, meaning fear of poetry. One psychology site,  (viewed Jun 2008) describes […]