hexakosi...oh, forget it

[Baker, John]

        I suspect that the word is in the class of terms that are never
used without an explanation of their meaning.  I'm not sure what,
exactly, the purpose of such terms may be.

        Their counterpart would be the class of terms that are used with
the deliberate intention that they will be looked up in a dictionary,
such as when a writing text advises avoiding sesquipedalian words (O.K.,
you knew that one), or when a legal document is criticized as being
psittacistic (there are people who know and routinely use
"psittacistic," without need of explanation, but they are not lawyers).


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Jonathan Lighter
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2008 10:41 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: hexakosi...oh, forget it

Here's somthing you don't see every day. About a town that whipped evil:

  2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7163767.stm (Dec. 29):

  "The fear of the number 666 is known as
hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia."

  JL

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