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Words that sound academic, but aren’t | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| Presidio Triglot Newbie United States Joined 4570 days ago 39 posts - 150 votes  Speaks: English*, Russian, German Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Gulf) | Message 9 of 13 21 January 2013 at 5:08am | IP Logged | |||||
And on the other hand... We have the word "Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia." (Accent on the 3rd, 6th, 10th, and 13th syllables.) Ironically enough, it means "The fear of long words." PATIENT: "So, doctor...I'm terrified by long words. Is there a name for that?" DOCTOR: "Ummmm...." . Edited by Presidio on 21 January 2013 at 5:10am 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ling Diglot Groupie Taiwan Joined 4575 days ago 61 posts - 94 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Indonesian, Thai | Message 10 of 13 21 January 2013 at 6:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Chinese 芬多精, meaning "phytoncide". Known to most Mandarin speakers in Taiwan, but hardly
known to anyone in English. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6586 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 11 of 13 21 January 2013 at 10:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4938 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 12 of 13 16 February 2013 at 3:45am | IP Logged | |||||
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I would say many in Spanish now and have used "preponderante", but in English that is
definitely seen as a fancy word to use ("preponderant") e.g. = The increase in the cost of living is the preponderant factor in the erosion of the middle class's purchasing power." In Spanish using that word would not sound so yuppy. Edited by outcast on 16 February 2013 at 3:47am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| PinkCordelia Diglot Newbie Wales Joined 4800 days ago 31 posts - 77 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Welsh | Message 13 of 13 16 February 2013 at 10:49am | IP Logged | |||||
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I once heard a bilingual Italian 6 year old use 'penultimate' quite casually in an
English sentence as a result, presumably, of his knowledge of Italian (penultimo). 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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