trisackaphobia
n.— «He was writing a biographical piece on Royals third baseman Kevin Seitzer, who allowed as how he had a deep-seated fear of playing his position. The SI scribe asked if I knew of a technical term for this condition, and I boldly responded with: “Yes, it’s called ‘trisackaphobia.’” Imagine my surprise when my improvised neologism appeared in the story without either a footnote or quotation marks.» —“Words pay no debts, but ours to the Bard” by Robert F. Willson Kansas City Star (Kan., Mo.) May 29, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
How do social media algorithms shape the way we communicate? A new book argues that the competition for clicks is changing the way we speak and write, from the so-called “YouTube accent” to the surprising evolution of the word preppy. Also: A...