WATCH | Floccinaucinihilipilification Challenge: Getting Shashi Tharoored and hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia
Hyper literate Shashi Tharoor has introduced new words to describe his newly launched book 'The paradoxical Prime Minister'.
Published: 11th October 2018 09:54 PM | Last Updated: 11th October 2018 11:56 PM | A+A A-
Shashi Tharoor. (Photo | PTI)
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor introduced Twitterati and the literati to a difficult, near the unpronounceable word, describing his new book on Prime Minister Narendra Modi as "more than just a 400-page exercise in floccinaucinihilipilification".
My new book, THE PARADOXICAL PRIME MINISTER, is more than just a 400-page exercise in floccinaucinihilipilification. Pre-order it to find out why!https://t.co/yHuCh2GZDM
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) October 10, 2018
According to the Oxford dictionary, the word is a noun and means "the action or habit of estimating something as worthless".
The New Indian Express finds out how well people can pronounce these words:
After leaving everyone puzzled yesterday with the word floccinaucinihilipilification, he took to Twitter again today to promise his readers that the book would not contain any words longer than paradoxical.
I'm sorry if one of my tweets y'day gave rise to an epidemic of hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia!
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) October 11, 2018
[Don't bother looking it up: it's just a word describing a fear of long words].
But #TheParadoxicalPrimeMinister contains no words longer than Paradoxical! https://t.co/8h0zkcHnb2
But in classic Shashi Tharoor style, he made the announcement while using another very long word - one that specifically refers to the fear of long words, hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.
