Wonderful Words

Word of the day: hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

Well, everyone knows what a phobia is… but what could this be?

There was a woman in the news a couple of years ago who had a fear of peas! I don’t think that fear has a special name though.

I’ve also heard of the fear of the colour yellow… known as xanthophobia.

I used to be petrified of those enormous overhead electricity wires and the pylons… have more or less got over that though. And I’m not overly keen on winding stairs, especially the enclosed type.

I am fine with spiders though. And snakes. Here’s a photo of one in my rockery, basking in the August sunshine!

… I believe it’s a harmless grass snake. (Hope it is!)

Here are a few more officially recognised fears:

ergophobia: the fear of work

spectrophobia: the fear of looking in a mirror

ombrophobia: the fear of rain or of being rained on

climacophobia: the fear of falling downstairs

pentheraphobia: the fear of mother-in-law (!)

Do you have a phobia?

Oh, nearly forgot.

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the fear of long words!

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By the way, I found a link to the website of the poet Kathy Elliott (here), whose poem I posted two days ago.