When you know the word for something (e.g. obesity), and then see another word that contains the same core elements, it can be a huge help in working out the meaning of the new word, even if, at first glance, it looks really daunting. Take, for example, the many different types of phobia that exist. I’m guessing that you won’t have too much trouble working out what these are, if you break each down into its component parts:
obesophobia bibliophobia microphobia zoophobia dentophobia
These might be a bit harder, but give it a try:
gynophobia hydrophobia somniphobia
Answers next time…
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[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ian, Francis van Stokkom. Francis van Stokkom said: English isn't so scary http://bit.ly/9iCpQn […]
=”english isnt so scary,” BUT the horrenduous spelling IS.= GBS 1940 tried his best to get phonetics into the langg. i spoke baby english before i did in my native tongue. i can follow all the 30 diff ways IndInglish is spoken and also the diff ways in anglophile world.# My advice to MacMillan is to give the fonetic English alongside the old word. and accept / tolerate the free english for all but the academic usage.# By 50 years the old spellings will have disappeared.# in 1969 i was told at BKK by a Burmese Director that Ind Eng is so fast, monoTonous, and w/o any concept of stress etc. That is cos our teachers were taught so! # So, if MacMillan in its phonetik parallel version puts in a few stress marks this handikap is korrekted.