Words

WTF Fun Fact 13180 – Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

by

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the fear of long words. And someone clearly had a sense of humor when they created it to be one of the longest words in the English dictionary.

What is hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia?

Well, for starters, the tongue-twister isn’t officially recognized by the American Psychological Association’s DSM 5 (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is used to make diagnoses) as an actual phobia. It’s more of a curiosity and an excuse to show off your language skills.

One can also refer to the fear of long words as “sesquipedalophobia.”

But before you think it’s ridiculous, note that psychologists do categorize hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia as a social phobia.

According to the DSM-5, criteria for social phobias require a patient to have the following:

  • a fear or anxiety about social situations where a person may be examined, like meeting new people or having a conversation
  • the fear or anxiety is disproportionate to the social situation
  • the fear or anxiety is persistent, and the social situation is excessively avoided
  • the fear, anxiety, or avoidance causes clinical distress

What causes such a unique phobia?

According to Healthline (cited below), social phobias like this can be associated with a negative event that was scary or traumatic at the time, a family history of phobias or other mental health issues, a person’s environment (especially if they see someone else develop a similar phobia), and changes in brain function. It’s certainly not something to make light of or ignore.

However, people may not seek treatment for fear of stigma, even from doctors. They’re more likely to take jobs or lead lifestyles that don’t require them to use long words. And there’s no official “limit” of word length that qualifies someone for this phobia.

The good news is that there are treatments and coping mechanisms one can explore with a professional to help someone afflicted with hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, whether it’s helping them manage anxiety symptoms or overcome their fear altogether with training.

—WTF fun facts

Source: “What is hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia?” — Healthline

WTF Fun Fact 13178 – The FBI and “Louie Louie”

by

Did you know there’s a connection between the FBI and the song “Louie Louie”? The FBI launched a criminal investigation into the Kingsmen’s song back in the mid-1960s to determine whether the lyrics were obscene. In fact, that investigation lasted two years!

The strange story of the FBI and “Louie Louie”

A letter from a concerned parent in 1964 asking to “stamp out this menace” of obscenity in music is one of many interesting pieces of the available-but-redacted FBI document on the song.

Of course, if you listen to the song, you’re likely to not understand any of the lyrics at all. They’re muddled at best and nonsensical even if you can make them out. But like so many musical conspiracy theorists, a handful of people thought they heard pornographic lyrics if they slowed the record down. The lyrics the complainants came up with said a lot more about the complainers than the artists!

For the record, here are the actual lyrics to “Louie Louie”:

Louie, Louie,
me gotta go.
Louie, Louie,
me gotta go.

A fine little girl, she wait for me;
me catch a ship across the sea.
I sailed the ship all alone;
I never think I’ll make it home

Three nights and days we sailed the sea;
me think of girl constantly.
On the ship, I dream she there;
I smell the rose, in her hair.

Louie, Louie,
me gotta go.
Louie, Louie,
me gotta go.

A fine little girl, she wait for me;
me catch a ship across the sea.
I sailed the ship all alone;
I never think I’ll make it home

Three nights and days we sailed the sea;
me think of girl constantly.
On the ship, I dream she there;
I smell the rose, in her hair.

Nothing obscene there!

Closing the investigation

The FBI never contacted singer Jack Ely during the two years of the FBI investigation. In fact, they closed the case saying: “, the man who sang the words of the song in the first place. At the end of the two years, the FBI didn’t even exonerate “Louie Louie,” they simply said that “the lyrics of the song on this record was not definitely determined by this Laboratory examination, it was not possible to determine whether this recording is obscene.” —WTF fun facts

Source: “The FBI Investigated the Song ‘Louie Louie’ for Two Years” — Smithsonian Magazine

WTF Fun Fact 13176 – A Mortician’s Job Title

by

The funeral industry has a number of job titles. But what was once known as an “undertaker” wasn’t getting enough interest back in the late 19th century. That’s when the industry decided to change its name to “mortician.” A mortician’s job title was the result of a PR campaign and a magazine plea.

The term mortician was invented as part of a PR campaign by the funeral industry, which felt it was more customer-friendly than “undertaker.” The term was chosen after a call for ideas in Embalmer’s Monthly.

A PR boost for a mortician’s job

According to Mental Floss (cited below), the more customer-friendly “mortician” came after a plea for new ideas on renaming the undertaker’s position in the 1895 edition of the trade magazine The Embalmers’ Monthly. If you’re missing that particular issue, Mental Floss can fill in the blanks.

It appears that the job title of mortician was believed to be “more customer-friendly than undertaker, which originally referred to the contractor who undertakes all the funeral arrangements, but had become tarnished by its centuries-old association with, well, death.”

But there was more to a mortician’s job than just a name change. As embalming became more widespread, those who had the skill wanted to distinguish themselves from “the undertakers of the past…”

Mental Floss notes that “Embalmers’ Monthly put out a call for suggestions. The next month they declared mortician the winner: It elegantly combined the Latin root for death, mort-, with physician, referencing embalming’s scientific, high-status connection with the medical profession. Of course, everyone except the morticians hated it.”

Grammarians hated the fact that it was an unattested word in Latin (one made up from pieces of the language and never used in the ancient world). The Chicago Tribune even banned the use of the word. And yet, today, we use it without thinking.

Eventually, people simply forgot it was a made-up word. — WTF fun facts

Source: “How Morticians Reinvented Their Job Title” — Mental Floss

WTF Fun Fact 13168 – The Dot Over the i

by

We’ll be honest, we’ve never actually wondered what the dot over the i or j (in lowercase, of course) was called. But if you’ve been curious, kudos to you for noticing the small things! And to answer your question, it’s called a “tittle.”

Why do we have marks over letters and characters?

Many languages have what we call diacritic marks over a character in order to change its sound or meaning. But English only has two letters with a diacritic – lowercase i and j. They’re always there and don’t change anything about the sound or meaning of the letter (in English, at least).

According to Dictionary.com: “The small distinguishing mark you see over a lowercase i and a lowercase j is called a tittle—an interesting name that looks like a portmanteau (combination) of tiny and little, and refers to a small point or stroke in writing and printing. Generally, a diacritic dot such as a tittle is also referred to as a glyph, a mark that adds meaning to the written letter. However, in regards to i and j, the removal of the mark is still likely to be read as I or J; as such, these are not true examples of a glyph.”

Why is the dot over the i and j called a tittle?

Who comes up with these things anyway?

Well, tittle comes from the Latin word “titulus.” A titulus is an inscription or heading. The word appeared for the first time in the 11th century as monks were copying manuscripts from the ancient world. Back in that day, handwriting was very different, and letters could easily get confused or blend together. As you may have guessed, i and j posed particular problem. That’s why copiers needed to come up with a diacritic to distinguish them from other letters.

It wasn’t until the 1400s when the printing press and typefaces were invented that the diacritical mark turned into just a small dot above each letter.

In other words, they’re simply a relic of a time when everything was handwritten. — WTF fun facts

Source: “What’s The Name For The Dot Over “i” And “j”?” — Dictionary.com

WTF Fun Fact 13166 – Most Misspelled Word

by

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the most commonly misspelled word is “publicly.”

The most misspelled word

Publicly may be the most commonly misspelled word because it violates a spelling rule in English. Words that end in “ic” get “ally” added to the end (like magic and magically). But public only gets an “ly.” This causes people to often misspell it as “publically.”

It seems like an unlikely word to misspell – or at least misspell most often. But other sources have other words that they believe are the most misspelled.

Other commonly misspelled words

Misspelling words can be hazardous to your success. According to CNBC, “According to one survey, 43% of hiring managers automatically chuck a candidate’s resume if it has spelling errors. Another showed that 79% of recruiters and human resource managers said spelling and grammatical mistakes were the biggest ‘deal breakers’ in job hunting.”

They also gathered grammar experts to alert us to some of the most commonly misspelled words in the English language. These include:

  • Accommodate (it’s hard to remember that there are two sets of double letters — “cc” and “mm”)
  • Acknowledgment
  • Acquire (people often forget the “c”)
  • Apparent
  • Calendar (really? c’mon, folks!)
  • Colleague
  • Conscientious
  • Consensus
  • Entrepreneur
  • Experience (people often assume it ends in “ance”)
  • Indispensable
  • Liaison
  • License
  • Occurred
  • Recommend
  • Successful
  • Until (seriously?)

Clearly, folks missed a lot of spelling classes in elementary school!

Depending on which source you’re asking, there may be a whole different list of “most commonly misspelled words.”

We all have some easy words we misspell by transposing letters or forgetting a vowel. Maybe we’ve become too reliant on spell checkers (or simply don’t care to get it right). But one thing is for sure, most of us could use a refresher of our 3rd-grade spelling class. — WTF fun facts

Source: “These are the 32 most commonly misspelled words, say grammar experts. How many can you get right?” — CNBC

WTF Fun Fact 13158 – Baby Puffins

by

Baby puffins are called pufflings. How adorable is that?

A stranger fact about baby puffins

Ok, now that you know pufflings exist, did you know that on Iceland’s Westman Islands (aka Vestmannaeyjar), puffling season means throwing the animals off cliffs? We promise it’s not what it sounds like.

People do it to save their lives.

According to NPR:

“The chicks of Atlantic puffins, or pufflings, hatch in burrows on high sea cliffs. When they’re ready to fledge, they fly from their colony and spend several years at sea until they return to land to breed, according to Audubon Project Puffin. Pufflings have historically found the ocean by following the light of the moon… Now, city lights lead the birds astray.”

Now, some of the residents of Vestmannaeyjar “spend a few weeks in August and September collecting wayward pufflings that have crashed into town after mistaking human lights for the moon. Releasing the fledglings at the cliffs the following day sets them on the correct path.”

So they don’t chuck them off cliffs (although some may toss them less gently than need be) – they just lead them back to where they belong (or have a better chance of surviving). It’s amazing how light pollution can disrupt an ecosystem!

Puffling lives

Since a pair of puffins mates for life but only raise one egg per season, the loss of a whole generation could be devastating to their populations.

You could even get a chance to help save the pufflings if there’s a colony around you. Their seasons will depend on food supplies and light conditions.

If you decide to go on Puffin Patrol, it’s best to search for them at night with a flashlight in places where they might find food. It sounds like a great reason to go on vacation from August through September! — WTF fun facts

Source: “Puffin Chicks” — Audobon Project

WTF Fun Fact 13157 – First Use of the Word Unfriend

by

In the Appeal of Injured Innocence, the word “unfriend” was coined in 1659 by Church of England clergyman Thomas Fuller.

What’s the context around the first use of the word unfriend?

Did you think “unfriend” was a word before Facebook? We did, and we were wrong.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first citation of the word “unfriend” (AND “muggle”!) was in a 13th-century epic Middle English poem Brut by Layamon. There are two uses of the word in the poem.

Of course, it’s a little hard to read English from this time, but it may be easier to say it out loud: “We sollen … slean houre onfrendes and King Learwenden after Brenne.” And “Wend to oure onfreondes and drif heom of blonde.”

Ok, that might seem like cheating. But unfriend was a word used throughout the Middle ages to denote one who is not a friend (but not quite an enemy).

Unfriend becomes a verb

Unfriending someone seems very Facebook-specific, but the word was also used for a very long before the 21st century (though still not as a verb). We have Shakespeare to thank for using ‘unfriended’ to refer to someone who has lost their friends. For example, in Twelfth Night, he wrote “Being skilless in these parts; which to a stranger, / Unguided and unfriended, often prove / Rough and unhospitable.”

In King Lear: “Sir, will you, with those infirmities she owes—. / Unfriended, new adopted to our hate.”

It was used as a verb in the 17th century when, in 1658, Church of England clergyman Thomas Fuller wrote to Peter Heylin, who had criticized Fuller’s The Church History of Britain from the birth of Jesus Christ until the year 1648,

“I hope, Sir, that we are not mutually un-friended by this difference which hath happened betwixt us. And now, as duellers, when they are both out of breath, may stand still and parley, before they have a second pass, let us in cold blood exchange a word, and, mean time, let us depose, at least, suspend, our animosities.
[…] I conceive our time, pains, and parts may be better expended to God’s glory, and the Church’s good, than in these needless contentions. Why should Peter fall out with Thomas, both being disciples to the same Lord and Master? […]
Who knoweth but that God, in his providence, permitted, yea, ordered, this difference to happen betwixt us, not only to occasion a reconciliation, but to consolidate a mutual friendship betwixt us during our lives, and that the survivor (in God’s pleasure only to appoint) may make favourable and respectful mention of him who goeth first to his grave?”

But as Interesting Literature (cited below) points out, Facebook still doesn’t take the cake for the first to use the word for social media purposes. “But even in social media circles, ‘unfriend’ predates Facebook, with which it is not most closely associated.

“Its origin, or at least its first recorded use, was on Usenet in 2003: ‘I have been “unfriended” by somebody in the LJ world today.”

—WTF fun facts

Source: “The Curious Origin of the Word’ Unfriend'” — Interesting Literature

WTF Fun Fact 13148 – Pentheraphobia

by

Pentheraphobia means the fear of your mother-in-law. And while fear might not be the word most people would use, a phobia also refers to anxiety produced by the trigger and subsequent avoidance (to which more of us may be able to relate).

Is pentheraphobia real?

A phobia typically refers to an unfounded fear or dislike – and, let’s face it, some mothers-in-law are scary and threatening. (Of course, some are delightful!).

But the fear of one’s mother-in-law can be real for people who suffer from anxiety and who let their in-laws’ behavior or presence affect their lives in negative ways.

Pentheraphobia is not widespread (or widely recognized). While this specific phobia is not in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), general phobias are. And to qualify as a psychiatric disorder, a phobia must produce excessive and persistent fear, induce a state of panic around the trigger, and lead to unhealthy coping mechanisms in order to avoid contact.

According to Its Psychology (cited below): “It is a specific phobia, and it is important to clarify that it differs from a simple dislike or hatred because it can seriously affect the sufferer of the disorder.”

Fear of in-laws

If you’re not a fan of your in-laws or other parental figures, Its Psychology has a few other potential diagnoses to bring up with your doctor:

  • Socerafobia (fear of in-laws in general)
  • Vitricofobia (fear of the stepfather)
  • Novercaphobia (fear of the stepmother)

Suffering from phobias

While fear of one’s mother-in-law may seem amusing in some respects, the symptoms of phobias are no joke. They can include nausea, vomiting, tremors, irregular heartbeat, excessive sweating, and panic attacks. It goes far beyond dread.

Many phobias are believed to be rooted in past psychological trauma. Of course, you don’t have a mother-in-law until later in life, but it’s possible that you can be conditioned from a young age to fear non-blood relatives or pick up on other people’s fear or animosity towards their mothers-in-law. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Pentheraphobia: Symptoms, Causes and Treatments” — Its Psychology

WTF Fun Fact 13127 – Group of Ferrets

by

Have you ever asked yourself “what is a group of ferrets called”? No doubt you’ve asked yourself this deep and probing question multiple times in the past. Or maybe not, since it’s pretty rare to run into a whole group of ferrets?

What is a group of ferrets called?

Well, in case you’re NOW wondering what the name is for a group of these furry little guys, it’s a “business.” Yes, a business of ferrets.

They may also be called a fesnyng, which isn’t nearly as catchy.

For some reason, these creatures have all sorts of names we didn’t know about. According to the website A-Z Animals (cited below), non-neutered males are called hobs, and unspayed females are called jills. For fixed ferrets, males are called gibs, and females are called sprites. Their babies are referred to as kits.

What’s this business about?

Still stuck on the fact that a group of ferrets is called a business? A-Z Animals explains (sort of):

Ferrets are known for their mischief, ability to get into things they shouldn’t, escape tactics, and energetic natures. Would it make more sense if we told you that, in the past, they were referred to as a busyness? People saw ferrets and went, ‘Wow, those are some busy critters!’”

We’ll be honest, we’ve never spent time observing ferrets, so we can’t say how busy they are.

There are some other interesting fun facts about ferrets, however. For example, it’s considered cruel to own just one since they are such social creatures. While you don’t have to get a whole business of ferrets, you should get your cuddly pal a companion. Otherwise, they can get depressed. Even if you give your pet lots of stimulation, you can’t play with them the way they need to be played with (for example, you really shouldn’t bite them, but nipping is something they enjoy doing while play-fighting either each other). They have very thick skin, so the biting doesn’t hurt them – instead, it’s something they do to communicate!— WTF fun facts

Source: “What’s a Group of Ferrets Called?” — A to Z Animals

WTF Fun Fact 13083 – A Group of Butterflies

by

A group of butterflies is called a kaleidoscope. We love that! We’ve never actually seen more than one or two butterflies at a time, but now we know what to call them if we do.

You probably know that butterflies don’t start out life as beautiful flying creatures but rather as caterpillars. A group of caterpillars is called an army. It’s quite a biological and linguistic evolution to go through in one lifetime!

A kaleidoscope of butterflies

Of course, one may also call them a “swarm,” but that’s a lot less fun and it’s not really the official name. And no one really likes swarms of things.

Now, unless you go to a butterfly sanctuary, you may not have a great chance of running into a kaleidoscope of butterflies. They’re fairly solitary creatures. They even tend to migrate alone. If you’re near a source of food, that’s your best chance of seeing a kaleidoscope in the wild. Even though butterflies must come together to reproduce, they still don’t do this in groups. But they do use pheramones to attract one another as well as the colorful (dare we say, keleidiscopic) displays on their wings.

However, as far as monarch butterflies go, they do have a habit of clustering in trees at night. And those clusters are called a “roost.”

You may spot a roost in trees during migration if the weather gets cold or if predators are around.

Other butterfly facts

According to the experts at A – Z Animals (cited below), “There are around 17,500 species of butterfly in the world, scattered across all continents except Antarctica. In the United States, there are around 750 species of butterflies.”

As you may know, sadly, the migratory monarch butterfly (which is one of the most recognizable butterflies in the U.S.) is now endangered. — WTF fun facts

Source: “What’s a group of butterflies called?” — A – Z Animals

WTF Fun Fact 13059 – The Minionese “Language”

by

Have you seen “Minions,” “Despicable Me,” or “Despicable Me 2”? If so, you may have heard the Minion characters speaking their own language. All Minions are voiced by Pierre Coffin, who also created the language called Minionese.

Minionese and other made-up languages

From Klingon to Elvish, storytellers have been making up their own languages for years. And some fans have ever learned how to speak them.

According to the Motion Picture Association, Minionese is “the lexical version of a hearty stew, made up of words from multiple languages, expressed not only vocally, but through the Minions’ physical comedy. While the creation of Minionese makes narrative sense now that the Minions have a rich backstory…Coffin’s goal was for the audience to understand Minionese without actually knowing the exact verbiage through the Minions huge range of vocal melodies and inflections, as well as their physical actions.”

It takes an interesting mind to create such a dynamic method of communication!

Creating language

Coffin’s first task was creating a backstory for Minions Kevin, Stuart, and Bob. The characters are part of a nomadic tribe in search of a master. In the course of their journey, they’ve taken on bits of different languages they’ve come across. In fact, there are elements of Egyptian, French, and even Transylvanian.

But each character’s intonation means a lot to the language as well. All three Minions have different ways of vocalizing.

According to Coffin:

“You don’t understand their words, you don’t understand their grammar, but you do understand when they’re in a position of conflict, if they’re sad or if they’re happy.”

He actually started building the language while watching silent films. That helped him understand how visual communication would play an integral role in having characters speak something no one had ever heard (but needed to understand if they were going to follow the plot).

When Coffin gets stuck on a line of Minion dialog, he just turns to other languages:

“Every time I got stuck in a sequence or in a shot where I need to express something, I have my Indian or Chinese menu handy. I also know a little bit of Spanish, Italian, Indonesian and Japanese. So I have all these sources of inspiration for their words. I just pick one that doesn’t express something by the meaning, but rather the melody of the words.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “Here’s How They Created Minionese, the Language of the Minions” — Motion Picture Association

WTF Fun Fact 13027 – Computer Mouse Measured in Mickeys

by

A good computer mouse will move across pixels quickly and without requiring too many clicks of the bottom wheel (or centimeters across the mouse pad if you’re using a mouse with a sensor). The unit of measurement used for a computer mouse is called a Mickey. The devices may be measured in Mickeys per second or Mickeys per centimeter, for example.

Measured in Mickeys

Mickeys are also used to measure the horizontal, vertical, and diagonal speed at which a cursor can travel over pixels on a computer screen.

Presumably, this unit of measurement is a cute way to summon to mind the Disney character Mickey Mouse. However, Disney has a tight hold on the copyright for their creations, so you won’t see a deliberate reference to the Mouse himself on your equipment.

Other quirky units of measurement

According to Mental Floss (cited below), a Mickey isn’t the only unofficial unit of measurement with personality.

For example: “If a light-year is the distance traveled by light in one year (i.e. approximately 6 trillion miles), then a beard-second is the length that a beard hair grows in one second—or, according to Google’s unit converter, 5 nanometers.”

And “One sydharb is equivalent to 500,000,000,000 liters, namely the approximate volume of Sydney Harbor.” But why is this useful? “Well, just like using the relative sizes of countries or regions to compare one against another (as in “Brazil is the same size as five Alaskas”), the volume of Sydney Harbor can be used to give context to otherwise incomprehensibly vast quantities like the annual water consumption of a city or country, the size or impact of a flood, and the capacities of lakes and dams.  In comparison, it takes two full days (49 hours to be precise) for 1 sydharb of water to flow over Niagara Falls.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “10 Ridiculously Precise Units of Measurement” — Mental Floss

WTF Fun Fact 12994 – The First Use of OMG

by

Have you typed or texted OMG in surprise? While you may feel a bit too old and mature for that, it might surprise you to know it’s not a millennial phenomenon – at least not originally. The first use of OMG to mean “oh my God” was in 1917.

Who was the first person to use OMG?

According to Smithsonian Magazine (cited below), Lord John Fisher was a British Navy Admiral “who began World War I as First Sea Lord but resigned in 1915” first used the abbreviation in a letter to none other than Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

The 1917 letter reads:

My Dear Winston,

I am here for a few days longer before rejoining my “Wise men” at Victory House-

“The World forgetting,
By the World forgot!”

but some Headlines in the newspapers have utterly upset me! Terrible!!
“The German Fleet to assist the Land operations in the Baltic.
“Landing the German Army South of Reval.”
We are five times stronger at Sea than our enemies and here is a small Fleet that we could gobble up in a few minutes playing the great vital Sea part of landing an Army in the enemy’s rear and probably capturing the Russian Capital by Sea!
This is “Holding the ring” with a vengeance!
Are we really incapable of a big Enterprise?
I hear that a new order of Knighthood is on the tapis: — O.M.G (Oh! My! God!)– Shower it on the Admiralty.

Yours,
Fisher
9/9/17

The first use of OMG was one of utter surprise, which seems fitting! But let’s not overlook the hilarious phrase “Shower it on the Admiralty” either – that one has to come in handy at some point, right?

—WTF fun facts

Source: “The First Use of OMG Was in a 1917 Letter to Winston Churchill” — Smithsonian Magazine

WTF Fun Fact 12971 – Tsundoku

by

Do you love books? Do you buy them to display in your home? Plenty of us do! But do you actually read them all? Probably not. In this case, you may be interested to know there’s a word for that – at least a Japanese one. Tsundoku is a person who engages in collecting a lot of unread books.

But it’s not an insult. Book lovers just really like to be around books!

Does this sound like you?

The BBC (cited below) interviewed Prof Andrew Gerstle from the University of London about the phenomenon and the roots of the word in 2018.

“He explained to the BBC the term might be older than you think – it can be found in print as early as 1879, meaning it was likely in use before that. The word ‘doku’ can be used as a verb to mean ‘reading.; According to Prof Gerstle, the ‘tsun’ in ‘tsundoku’ originates in ‘tsumu’ – a word meaning ‘to pile up.'” (Like a tsunami of books?!)

The literal meaning of “tsundoku” is buying reading material and piling it up.

The first use of the phrase has been traced to a piece of satirical writing by writer Mori Senzo from 1870, who described a teacher who had lots of books he didn’t read.

“Curing” Tsundoku

Just because there’s a word for it doesn’t mean it’s problematic behavior. Books can be great conversation starters even when they’re sitting on shelves. They even serve as great decor.

Of course, spending money on something that goes unused can spell trouble for some people.

If you’re interested in “curing” yourself of this habit, you can always limit yourself to books that you’re immediately interested in reading, limit the amount of time a book sits in a pile before you read it or give it away, or give yourself a specific number of books you’re allowed to buy in a given period of time. And if you simply don’t have the space, you can always donate your books to someone else with tsundoku. — WTF fun facts

Source: “Tsundoku: The art of buying books and never reading them” — BBC

WTF Fun Fact 12956 – Witzelsucht, a Joke Addiction

by

Have you ever met anyone who couldn’t stop telling jokes, even if no one else found them funny? Maybe they had Witzelsucht.

What’s a joke addict?

In 2016, neuroscientists Elias Granadillo and Mario Mendez published a paper titled “Pathological Joking or Witzelsucht Revisited” in The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences that described two patients with damage to their brains suffering from joke addiction.

They explained that “impaired humor integration from right lateral frontal injury and disinhibition from orbitofrontal damage results in disinhibited humor.” Two men were used as an example.

Compulsive jokesters

According to Discover Magazine:

“Patient #1 was a 69-year-old right-handed man presented for a neuropsychiatric evaluation because of a 5-year history of compulsive joking… On interview, the patient reported feeling generally joyful, but his compulsive need to make jokes and create humor had become an issue of contention with his wife. He would  wake her up in the middle of the night bursting out in laughter, just to tell her about the jokes he had come up with. At the request of his wife, he started writing down these jokes as a way to avoid waking her. As a result, he brought to our office approximately 50 pages filled with his jokes.“

“Patient #2 was a 57-year old man, who had become “a jokester”, a transformation that had occurred gradually, over a three period. At the same time, the man became excessively forward and disinhibited, making inappropriate actions and remarks. He eventually lost his job after asking “Who the hell chose this God-awful place?” The patient constantly told jokes and couldn’t stop laughing at them. However, he did not seem to find other people’s jokes funny at all.”

Diagnosis: Witzelsucht

Apparently, both men displayed signs of something called Witzelsucht, “a German term literally meaning ‘joke addiction.'”

“Several cases have been reported in the neurological literature, often associated with damage to the right hemisphere of the brain. Witzelsucht should be distinguished from ‘pathological laughter‘, in which patients start laughing ‘out of the blue’ and the laughter is incongruent with their “mood and emotional experience.” In Witzelsucht, the laughter is genuine: patients really do find their own jokes funny, although they often fail to appreciate those of others.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “‘Joke Addiction’ As A Neurological Symptom” — Discover Magazine

WTF Fun Fact 12950 – Anatidaephobia

by

Anatidaephobia is the fear of being watched by ducks. And despite this existing as a fun fact for decades, it may not actually be a real thing. If it is, it originated in an awfully strange place for a real phobia.

Who’s afraid of a duck?

Ducks are probably only watching you if you get too close to them or their nests. But we don’t want to downplay phobias, because they’re very real and produce real physical symptoms. So, could someone fear that a duck is watching them? Sure.

The question is whether this fear rises to the level of anatidaephobia. That’s less likely since the word was coined by Gary Larson in his comic The Far Side. The idea of this particular phobia is a hoax.

Phobias and anatidaephobia

Phobias spawn feelings of intense fear and worry about object or situations. While there’s no formal duck phobia, the idea of anatidaephobia comes from the Greek word “anatidae,” meaning “swan, ducks, or geese,” and “phobos,” meaning “fear.”

According to PsychCentral (cited below, and which does eventually get around to the point of mentioning it’s a hoax): “People who experience this phobia may not necessarily be worried that a duck might attack them. Instead, their fear centers around the idea that somewhere, a duck could be watching them — constantly.”

However, while “Anatidaephobia may seem like it could be a credible phobia, the fear of being constantly watched by a duck is actually a fictional phobia created for entertainment.”

In other words, you won’t find a fear of ducks in the Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (DSM-5), though you will find diagnostic criteria for “Specific Phobia: Animal type.”

That doesn’t mean a fear of birds, in general, is fake though. “Ornithophobia, or the fear of birds, is an animal type of specific phobia. Some people with this type of phobia may fear all birds or just a specific type of bird, such as a duck. Although anatidaephobia may not be real, the fear of ducks is a very real phobia.”

In the end, PsychCentral explains that: “Anatidaephobia can be traced back to Gary Larson, creator of the ‘The Far Side’ comic. Larson’s cartoon comic depicted a paranoid office worker with the caption, ‘Anatidaephobia: The fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you.’ The comic showed a duck looking out a window from another building behind the office. The point of Larson’s cartoon was to illustrate that any object can be a source of fear. Since the fictional phobia debuted in 1988, anatidaephobia has gained popularity. This has led to the internet questioning the phobia’s veracity. While anatidaephobia is indeed a hoax and not a real phobia, fears and phobias are no laughing matter. Phobias can have serious affects on a person’s daily life.” — WTF fun facts

Source: “Fear of Ducks Watching You: Is Anatidaephobia a Real Condition?” — PsychCentral

WTF Fun Fact 12949 – 200 Invented Languages

by

Writers and linguists have created over 200 entirely new languages over the millennia for use in literature, films, games, comic books, television shows, etc.

According to TranslationDirectory.com (cited below), here is a list:

Literature

  • AdunaicfromJ. R. R. Tolkien’s works
  • Aklo,Tsath-yo, andR’lyehianare ancient and obscure languages in the works ofH. P. Lovecraft,Clark Ashton Smith, and others. Aklo is considered by some writers to be thewritten languageof theSerpent People
  • Amtorian, spoken in some cultures on the planetVenusinPirates of VenusbyEdgar Rice Burroughsand several sequels. Judged by critic Fredrik Ekman to have “a highly inventive morphology but a far less interesting syntax.”
  • Ancient Language in theInheritance TrilogybyChristopher Paolini(although this is considered to be a cipher of English by many)
  • Angley,UnglishandIngliss– three languages spoken respectively at Western Europe, North America and the Pacific in the 29th Century world ofPoul Anderson’s “Orion Shall Rise”. All derived from present-day English, the three are mutually unintelligible, following 800 years of separate development after a 21st centurynuclear warand the extensive absorption of words and grammatical forms fromFrenchin the first case,Russian,ChineseandMongolianin the second, andPolynesianin the third.
  • Anglic, the dominant languague of the declining Galactic empire depicted inPoul Anderson’sDominic Flandryseries, is descended from present-day English but so changed that only professional historians or linguists can understand English texts.
  • Anglo-French, in thealternate historyworld of theLord Darcystories byRandall Garrett– where England and France were permanently united into a single kingdom byRichard the Lionheartand their languages consequently merged.
  • asa’pili (“world language”), inbolo’bolo, by Swiss authorP.M..
  • Atreides battle, inDunebyFrank Herbert
  • Babel-17, inBabel-17bySamuel R. Delany
  • Baronh, language of Abh inSeikai no Monsho(Crest of the Stars) and others, byMorioka Hiroyuki
  • Black Speech– language ofMordorinThe Lord of the Rings
  • Bokonon– language of the Bokononism religion in Kurt Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle”
  • Chakobsa, a language used in theDunenovels byFrank Herbert
  • Codex SeraphinianusbyLuigi Serafiniappears to be written in a constructed language which is presumably the language of the alien civilization the book describes
  • CommonThe language spoken in a wide variety of fantasy fiction, particularlyDungeons and Dragons.
  • D’HaranThe ancient, dead language of pre-Great War New World (D’Hara, Midlands, and Westland) in Terry Goodkind’s “Sword of Truth” series.
  • Drac, language of the alien species inBarry B. Longyear’sEnemy MineandThe Enemy Papers
  • Kad’k, the language of theDwarfsinTerry Pratchett’sDiscworld
  • Earthseabooks (byUrsula K. Le Guin)
  • Language of the Making – the basis of all magic, spoken byDragonsas their native tongue and learned with considerable effort by human mages
  • Hardic– linguistically descended from the above
  • Osskilian, andKargish– a different family of languages, distantly related
  • Elemeno, language of two sisters inCaucasiabyDanzy Senna.
  • Fremen, language of the native people of Arrakis, inDuneand other novels byFrank Herbert
  • Galactic Standard SpeechinAsimov’ “Foundation series”. Inhabitants of the planetFomalhautspeak “an extremedialect” of it.
  • GalacticspeakfromThe Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
  • Gobbledygook, the language ofgoblins, in theHarry Potterseries. Noted speakers includeAlbus DumbledoreandBarty Crouch.
  • Glide, created byDiana Reed Slattery, used by the Death Dancers ofThe Maze Game
  • Groilish, spoken bygiantsinGiants and the JonesesbyJulia Donaldson.
  • High Speechof Gilead from Stephen King’sThe Dark Tower (series)
  • Ilythiiri, the language ofdrowelves inForgotten Realmssetting.[2]
  • Kesh, inUrsula K. Le Guin’s novelAlways Coming Home
  • Krakish, inGuardians of Ga’HoolebyKathryn Lasky
  • Láadan(ldn), inSuzette Haden Elgin’s science fiction novelNative Tongueand sequels
  • Lapine, inWatership DownbyRichard Adams
  • LilliputianfromJonathan Swift’sGulliver’s Travels. Further samples of the language are provided inT. H. White’sMistress Masham’s Repose. InGulliver’s Travels, other fictional languages, spoken in other places Gulliver visits, are also presented, e.g.Brobdingnagian,Laputan,BalbinarbianandHouyhnhnmlanguages.
  • Mando’a, created byKaren Traviss, used by theMandaloriansin theStar WarsRepublic CommandonovelsHard ContactandTriple Zero
  • Manganiin theTarzannovels ofEdgar Rice Burroughs
  • Marain, inThe Culturenovels ofIain M. Banks
  • Thelanguages of Middle-earth(most notablySindarin(sjn),Quenya(qya) andKhuzdul) byJ. R. R. Tolkien, partly published inThe Lord of the Rings, and posthumously discussed inThe History of Middle-earthandother publications.
  • MolvanianfromMolvania, A Land Untouched By Modern Dentistry
  • Nadsatslang, inA Clockwork OrangebyAnthony Burgess
  • Newspeak, inNineteen Eighty-FourbyGeorge Orwell(fictional constructed language)
  • The “NautilusLanguage”, spoken on boardJules Verne’s famous fictional submarine, in token of crew members having completely renounced their former homelands and backgrounds. Every morning, after scanning the horizon with his binoculars, Nemo’s second-in-command says: “Nautron respoc lorni virch”. The meaning of these words is never clarified, but their construction seems to indicate that the “Nautilus Language” (its actual name is not given) is based on European languages.
  • Old Solar, inOut of the Silent Planet,Perelandra, andThat Hideous StrengthbyC. S. Lewis
  • TheOld TonguefromRobert Jordan’sWheel of Timeseries
  • Paluldonianin aTarzannovel,Tarzan the Terrible, byEdgar Rice Burroughs. Used by the inhabitants of the realm of Pal-ul-don in Africa, separated from the outside world by impenetrable marshes.
  • Parseltongue, the language ofsnakes, in theHarry Potterseries. The ability of humans to speak it is considered amagicability.
  • Pennsylvanisch, fromMichael Flynn’sThe Forest of Time
  • PravicandIotic, inThe DispossessedbyUrsula K. Le Guin
  • Ptydepe, fromVáclav Havel’s playThe Memorandum
  • QuintagliofromRobert J. Sawyer’sQuintaglio Ascension Trilogy
  • QuenyafromJ. R. R. Tolkien’s works.
  • QwghlmianfromNeal Stephenson’sCryptonomiconandThe Baroque Cycle
  • Rihannsu, spoken by the Rihannsu (Romulans) in theStar Treknovels ofDiane Duane
  • Spocanian, inRolandt Tweehuysen’s fictional countrySpocania
  • Stark(short for Star Common), a common interstellar English-based language fromOrson Scott Card’sEnderseries
  • Starsza MowafromAndrzej Sapkowski’sHexer saga
  • Trolllanguage fromTerry Pratchett’sDiscworld
  • Utopian language, appearing in a poem byPetrus GillesaccompanyingThomas More’sUtopia
  • Whitmanite, spoken by members of a radicalAnarchist-Pacifistcult of the same name inRobert Heinlein’The Puppet Masters. “Allucquere” is a female given name in Whitmanite.
  • Zaum, poetic tongue elaborated byVelimir Khlebnikov,Aleksei Kruchonykh, and otherRussian Futuristsas a “transrational” and “most universal” language “of songs, incantations, and curses”.

Comic books

  • Bordurianin some ofHergé’sThe Adventures of Tintin, mostly inThe Calculus Affair
  • Interlac, the universal language spoken in the 30th century in theLegion of Super Heroescomics
  • Kryptonese, or Kryptonian, the language of Superman’s home planet ofKrypton
  • Syldavian, in some ofHergé’sThe Adventures of Tintin, mostly inKing Ottokar’s Sceptre
  • Movies and television
  • Two kinds ofalien language, termed “Alienese” and “Beta Crypt 3” appear quite frequently in background sight gags inFuturama.
  • Ancientin theStargateuniverse (i.e.Stargate SG-1andStargate Atlantis) is the language of the Ancients, the builders of theStargates; it is similar in pronunciation toMedieval Latin. TheAthosianssay prayers in Ancient.
  • Atlanteancreated byMarc Okrandfor the filmAtlantis: The Lost Empire
  • Cityspeak, a “mishmash of Japanese, Spanish, German,” plus Hungarian and French, spoken on the street of overcrowded and multi-lingual Los Angeles of 2019 inBlade Runner. Similarly, used in manycyberpunkgenrerole playing games.
  • The Divine Languageis a language invented by directorLuc Bessonand actressMilla Jovovichfor the 1997 movieThe Fifth Element.
  • Enchanta, in theEncantadiaandEtheriatelevision series in the Philippines, created by the head writerSuzette Doctolero
  • Gelfling, spoken inJim Henson’s fantasy epicThe Dark Crystal
  • Goa’uld, the galacticlingua francafromStargate SG-1, supposedly influencedAncient Egyptian
  • Huttese, language of both alien species and people in some ofGeorge Lucas’sStar Warsfilms
  • Irken, inInvader Zim, byJhonen Vasquez,et al.
  • Klingon(tlh), in theStar Trekmovie and television series, created byMarc Okrand
  • KrakozhianfromThe Terminal
  • Ku, a fictional African language in the movieThe Interpreter(2005)
  • Linguacode, a universallanguagecode sometimes used by theUnited Federation of Planetsin theStar Trektelevisionseries.
  • Marklar, spoken by the people of Marklar in aSouth Parkepisode.
  • MinbarifromBabylon 5, three related languages used together, corresponding to the areas of expertise of the three societal castes.
  • Nadsat, the fictional language spoken by Alex and his friends inClockwork Orange
  • Nellish, a personal language from the main character ofNell
  • PakufromLand of the Lost
  • PortuGreek, the trade language featured inWaterworld
  • The pseudo-Spanish/Greek/Arabic language of Republica, as used in the fictionalChanel 9program within the British comedy sketch show theThe Fast Show
  • Quenya(qya) andSindarin(sjn), the two Elven languages, spoken in theLord of the Ringsmovies.
  • Slovetzian, the fictional Slavic language ofSlovetziain the movieThe Beautician and the Beast
  • TheStar Warsseries features several fictional languages.
  • Tenctonesefrom theAlien Nationmovie andtelevision series, created byVan LingandKenneth Johnson
  • UnasinStargate SG-1, supposedly the first hosts of the Goa’uld
  • Ulam, language spoken by the prehistoric humans inAnthony Burgess’ movieQuest for Fire, created by melting roots of European languages.
  • Vampirelanguage used in the movieBlade.
  • Vulcan languagefromStar Trek
  • Unnamed languages
  • In theJanissaries seriesofscience-fictionnovels byJerry Pournelle, the human natives of the planet Tran speak a language apparently derived fromMycenaean. A form of Latin is also spoken in an empire resembling ancient Rome’s, but only by scholars.
  • Riddley Walker, a 1980 novel byRussell Hoban, set in a post-apocalyptic future, is written entirely in a “devolved” form of English.
  • Writer/directorLuc Bessoninvented aDivine LanguageforMilla Jovovich’s character “Leeloo” to speak in the filmThe Fifth Element.
  • Music
  • Gulevache: fictionalRomance Languageof the kingdom of Gulevandia on the bilingual operaCardoso en Gulevandiaby the comedy groupLes Luthiers
  • Kobaian, the language used by 70’s French rock groupMagma.
  • Vonlenska, sometimes known as “Hopelandic”, the language sung byJón Þór Birgissonof theIcelandicband “Sigur Rós” on many of their songs.
  • Loxian, featured on theEnyaalbumAmarantine.
  • Unnamed language by Yves Barbieux, used in his song “Sanomi” and performed by the Belgian groupUrban Tradin the Eurovision Song contest in 2003.
  • Mohelmot, a forbidden language used byThe Residentson the albumThe Big Bubble: Part Four of the Mole Trilogy.
  • Unnamed language by Emmanuelle Orange, used in her song Pialoushka and performed by Montreal bandEden106.
  • Unnamed language featured in thechorusof2NU’s 1991 trackThis is Ponderous.
  • Unnamed language featured in the soundtrack to the film1492: Conquest of ParadisebyVangelis.

—WTF fun facts

Source: “List of constructed languages” — TranslationDirectory.com