sesquipedalophobia

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English sesquipedalian

Proto-Indo-European *bʰegʷ-

Ancient Greek φόβος (phóbos)

Proto-Indo-European *-h₂

Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-i-eh₂

Proto-Hellenic *-íā

Ancient Greek -ῐ́ᾱ (-ĭ́ā)

Ancient Greek -φοβία (-phobía)der.

Latin

New Latinbor.

English -phobia

English sesquipedalophobia

From sesquipedalian + -phobia.

Noun

sesquipedalophobia (uncountable)

1. Fear of long words.
   • 1983, Verbatim‎^[1], volume 10, page 25:

     But sesquipedalophobia ('hatred or fear of big words,' aptly enough) has prevailed, even among men of learning.

   • 2002 March 6, derm, “Re: Are You Somebody? by O'Faolaint”, in soc.culture.irish‎^[2] (Usenet):

     That hasn't helped my sesquipedalophobia one bit...

   • 2008, Abhijit Bhaduri, Married But Available‎^[3], HarperCollins (2012), →ISBN:

     Ayesha was like a walking dictionary of phobias. She believed that I had sesquipedalophobia – the fear of long words.

See also

• hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia