Redirect Left wrote:So lately i've been researching some words and etymology, as I... generally have nothing to do with my days.
It made me realise how many words are quite ironic or just a bit cruel, given their meaning.
Rhotacism - The inability to pronounce 'R' correctly. A word you wouldn't be able to pronounce due to having it...
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia - The fear of long words. Also how to give people with this fear a heart attack.
Lisp - The inability to pronounce 'S' and 'Z' correctly. Again, if you have this, you can't pronounce the word correctly.
Aibohphobia - The fear of palindromes. Guess what? aibohphobia is a palindrome.
Halitosis - The medical term for bad breath. They also chose a word that causes more exhalations than comfortable for someone with halitosis.
Phonetic - This word is not actually spelt phonetically.
Stutter / Stammer - Very generally speaking, people who suffer from a stutter or stammer struggle to say words that start with S a bit more frequently than other letters, even more so if its 'St'. Rather cruel.
Lallation - The term used for a child (baby or toddlers) repetative meaningless babbles prior to learning their first words of what will become their native language. So far, not very cruel or ironic, however it can also be used to identify people who cannot enunciate their 'L's, usually sounding like an 'R'. Enjoy pronouncing that one then, even moreso if you also suffer from Rhotacism.
I wonder if these sorts of examples also carry over into other languages, or if the English are just a little irritating with their choice of words.
Well, in Slovak:
Rhotacism = ráčkovanie, not nearly as bad as some other words with 'R's (especially long 'R's like in tŕnie) but probably still annoying to pronounce.
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia - never heard of this tbh, sounds Latin though so it's probably the same.
Lisp = šušlanie (š is pronounced like sh), this is similar to lallation in how it mimics the speech of a lisping person. Some people with really bad lisp can't even pull a š, so there's that side to it as well.
Aibohphobia - another one I've never heard about. With how Latin/Greek words are appropriated in Slovak, the equivalent term would be "aibofóbia", which is close to a palindrome but no cigar. Slovak doesn't allow consecutive long syllables (i.e. syllables with the apostrophe-looking diacritics on the vowels, like the ó's), so you can't have "aibófóbia".
Halitosis = halitóza, another appropriated Latin word. ó is long, so even worse for the sufferers of this condition.
Phonetic = fonetický, every Slovak word is phonetic, including those stolen from Greeks. Checkmate!
Stutter = koktanie, pretty much the same deal except made even worse by there being a similar swear word that a stuttering person can easily land on.
Lallation = lalanie, again a similar word, same deal.
