Atelophobe 'fear of imperfection' by extension 'perfectionist'. From Greek ateles 'without end; unfinished; imperfect' from telos 'coming to pass, consummation; degree or state of completion'.
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SF Bay Area
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Re: atelophobe
Mon, August 15, 2005 - 10:42 AMah! another great one from the phobia list.
like,
hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia -
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Re: atelophobe
Mon, August 15, 2005 - 11:07 AMhippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia
or
hippo potomo (mo)nstro sesqui pedalio phobia
horse - river - monster - one and a half foot - fear of
So, is that the fear of short monster hippos?
Actually, to keep it all Greek you should use: terato (from teras):
hippopotomteratosesquipedaliophobia -
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Re: atelophobe
Mon, August 15, 2005 - 11:08 AM
it's supposed ot be a fear of very long words. but now that you point out these things, i fail to see how that word can mean anything other than a fear of short river monsters. and who ISN'T afraid of those? -
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Re: atelophobe
Mon, August 15, 2005 - 11:45 AMStrange how "foot and a half" "sesquipedilia" seems long when applied to words, but short when applied to "river horse monsters".
Of course, Martial applies it to a ex-girlfriend's lover's penis:
lux mea non capitur nugis neque moribus istis
nec dominae pectus talia damna movent:
bis senos puerum numerantem perdidit annos,
mentula cui nondum sesquipedalis erat.
(My love is not taken by trifles, nor by such passions as that; nor do such losses move my mistress' heart: she has lost a boy just counting twice six years, whose prick was not yet a foot and a half long. trans. by Walter C A Ker) -
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Re: atelophobe
Mon, August 15, 2005 - 11:51 AMsomething gained in translation? hard to imagine a 12 year old with a foot-long woody.
nyuck nyuck -
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Re: atelophobe
Mon, August 15, 2005 - 1:18 PMI think that Martial was joking. Either about the age of his mistress' ex-lover or about the length of his manhood. A half-yard hardon is a near monster nevertheless.
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Re: atelophobe
Tue, August 16, 2005 - 8:03 AMOf course, sesquipedalis is a Latin word, not a Greek one. Still I am disturbed by the dropped -mo- syllable in hippopotomo- before -monstro-. Also, the extra -p- and the extraneous -o- in -sesquipedali- makes me wonder who coined this word.
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