Learning Something New

The other day the kids and I were watching a repeat of “Wizards of Waverly Place” and one of the characters said the word “hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.” Being me, I had to look it up to see what it means. Ahem, “fear of long words” is what I found. Imagine that. Are they serious? A 36-letter word to describe that particular fear is a bit ridiculous. Unless the purpose was to force the phobic person to face the fear by having to tell people what the actual phobia is called. That makes sense but I think it’s unlikely. I think the people who named that phobia just decided it would be a fun way to make fun of the afflicted. Either way, I learned something new that day.

I also looked up the word “flibbertigibbet” after hearing it in a movie. That one refers to a person who is flighty or scatterbrained; as in, “She’s such a ditz, a real flibbertigibbet.” Who makes up these words? I’m curious because I would never use a word like that for someone scatterbrained. I’d just say ‘scatterbrained’ instead; or maybe I’d just stick with calling her (or him) a ditz. Why can’t we just have simple words or phrases that mean what we want to say?

For instance, I’m the female head of household; the mother of the family. Somewhere, someone, at some point way back when, decided that I’m the materfamilias. The what? Can’t I just be the mom? Yes, it’s the same with the father of the house; he’s the paterfamilias. Why? Can’t he just be the dad or male head of household? I haven’t yet gotten a sales call asking for the materfamilias; they always ask for the head of the household. Although, I may try it next time I have to call a friend and one of their kids answers the phone. “Hi, this is Beth; may I speak to the mater(pater)familias please? That could be fun; messing with their heads.

I know words come from Latin or Greek or whatever derivations but let’s get real. Were these words actually used in the past? I have to think that they were or they wouldn’t exist, right? Granted, other than hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia I’m sure the other two words I mentioned are no longer in service in this day in age, other than in the movies where I heard them, anyway. I would like to know how many people actually suffer from that phobia because that might tell us how often that word is used. You know, when the psychiatrist or psychologist has to write down, and say, the diagnosis, the word would have to be used, I guess. Maybe they have an abbreviation for it. Imagine that; a medical abbreviation for hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. Maybe it’s FLW; I don’t know but it’s pretty funny to think about it. I’m cracking myself up over here.

I’m even having fun thinking about my favorite word: onomatopoeia. We all know what that one means, right? Come on, silly. Onomatopoeia is a word that sounds like what it describes: e.g. drip, bang, squeak…you get the idea, right? I don’t know why I like that word other than it’s fun to pronounce and even more fun to define. How many onomatopoeias (onomatopoeiae is said to be the other plural form) can you think of right now? Beep, honk, squish, splat…there are loads of them. Let’s have an onomatopoeia contest to see who can come up with the most original one. Nah, let’s not and say we did. I don’t want to because I know I’d lose. Hey, at least I’m honest about it.

Anyway, I just thought I’d share these so you can all say you learned something new today. And you honestly can. If you didn’t know any of the words, you learned five new words. If you know some, you learned the ones you didn’t know; I’ll leave the math up to you. Let’s review: hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia – fear of long words; flibbertigibbet – someone who is flighty or scatterbrained; materfamilias – mother of the household; paterfamilias – father of the household; onomatopoeia – a word that sounds like what it describes. Got all of them? Good. Now go teach them to someone else and I dare you to try to get them into some conversation during the day. Just don’t take the easy way out: “Hey, guess what. I learned five new words today.” No, that’s just not fair; anyone can do that. Try to use them in actual conversation. Give it a try; I know you can do it. :)

Until next time…peace to all.