Learn English – the story behind the word “hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia”
etymologyneologisms
Was someone just trying to be funny by being ironic?
Best Answer
Sesquipedalian means having many syllables, and you'll probably know what phobia means. Thus, "sesquipedaliophobia" is an irrational fear of words with many syllables. The prefixes "hippopoto-" and "monstro-", as you might guess, are not there to add anything in terms of meaning, in fact they are rather nonsensical. Their only purpose is to make the word longer, in a witty and cruel, sarcastic twist.
From hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian, an extension of sesquipedalian with monstrum "monster" and a truncated, misspelled form of hippopotamus, intended to exaggerate the length of the word itself and the idea of the size of the words being feared; combined with phobia.
So I guess the answer to your question is yes, you can say that someone was trying to be funny.
You might try adapting Rumsfeld's "(un)known (un)known" approach, although you would be best served by depoliticizing it in this situation. What you're dealing with are known unknowns, or certain bits of information that you know you do not know.
According to this source (Mahjong) Confucius and his love for birds seems to be at the origin of the name:
also spelled majiang, mah jongg, and numerous other variants, is a game that originated in China. It is commonly played by four players (with some three-player variations found in Korea and Japan). The game and its regional variants are widely played throughout Eastern and South Eastern Asia and have a small following in Western countries. Similar to the Western card game rummy, mahjong is a game of skill, strategy, and calculation and involves a degree of chance.
>
In Chinese, the game was originally called 麻雀 (pinyin: máquè)—meaning sparrow—which is still the name most commonly used in some southern Chinese languages such as Cantonese and Min Nan, as well as in Japanese. However, most Mandarin-speaking Chinese now call the game májiàng (麻將). In Northern Wu Chinese (Shanghainese and its relatives), it is pronounced as 麻將 [mu tsiaŋ], but in actuality, 麻將 is the diminutive form of 麻雀, written as 麻雀兒 [mu tsiaʔ ŋ], due to an erhua event. It is through the Wu Chinese pronunciation of 麻雀兒 that the diminutive form of 麻雀 in Northern Wu became known as 麻將 in both Mandarin and Wu.[citation needed]
One of the myths of the origin of mahjong suggests that Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, developed the game in about 500 BC. The three dragon (cardinal) tiles also agree with the three cardinal virtues bequeathed by Confucius. Hóng Zhōng (紅中 , red middle), Fā Cái (發財 , prosperity), and Bái Bǎn" (白板 , white board) represent benevolence, sincerity, and filial piety, respectively.
The myth also claims that Confucius was fond of birds, which would explain the name "mahjong" (maque 麻雀 = sparrow).
Best Answer
Sesquipedalian means having many syllables, and you'll probably know what phobia means. Thus, "sesquipedaliophobia" is an irrational fear of words with many syllables. The prefixes "hippopoto-" and "monstro-", as you might guess, are not there to add anything in terms of meaning, in fact they are rather nonsensical. Their only purpose is to make the word longer, in a witty and cruel, sarcastic twist.
Wiktionary says:
So I guess the answer to your question is yes, you can say that someone was trying to be funny.