Shashi Tharoor's latest tweet will give you a word to describe the fear of long words.
Congress parliamentarian Shashi Tharoor is no stranger to strange, obscure words. After leaving everyone puzzled yesterday with the word floccinaucinihilipilification that he used in a tweet to announce his latest book, The Paradoxical Prime Minister, he took to Twitter about an hour ago to promise his readers that the book would not contain any words longer than paradoxical. 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.
"I'm sorry if one of my tweets y'day gave rise to an epidemic of hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia!" wrote Mr Tharoor.
"[Don't bother looking it up: it's just a word describing a fear of long words]" he added.
Well, now you know a long word to describe the fear of long words, just in case it ever comes up in a conversation.
Since being shared just one hour ago, the tweet has already garnered over 3,000 'likes' and a ton of responses.
In the past, Mr Tharoor has familiarised his followers with other long, rarely-used words. The list includes lalochezia, farrago, rodomontade, webaqoof and snollygoster.