Liz's Word Journal

Word: epenthesis /ɛˈpɛnθɪsɪs/

Definition: Epenthesis is the interposition of a letter or syllable in the midst of a word (OED)

This word came up in a conversation I was having with the speech pathologist I volunteer for. We were discussing the speech of this 6 year old and how he said fishing - instead of fishing, he would say fikshing. This is the only word he says that has this random insertion of a consonant. Of course it never occurred to me that this was an actual error in speech as I have heard adults/adolescents who inserted random letters in words that didn’t belong there. The appearance of epenthesis in the 6 year old may also be due to some underlying features that he has other speech problems such as “backing” of consonants where the tongue has a tendency to slip backwards in production of more front consonants (/d/ is sometimes pronounced as a /g/ sound). Backing happens to be more rare than fronting.

Word: ephebephobia/ephebiphobia

Definition: irrational fear of adolescents

(This word is spelled ephebephobia in my book but online it is spelled ephebiphobia; neither spelling of these words is found in the OED.)

I came across this word in my textbook about adolescents. I knew there was a fear for just about everything but this was something I wasn’t expecting. I’m sure we can all agree that there is a stigma about adolescents that isn’t all too positive, and we may have felt this stigma at one point in our life. I guess the idea of the word is that adults are afraid of the negativity that adolescents bring around with them and fear that adolescents are out for the worst.

Word: Bridezilla /braɪdˈzɪlə/

Definition: A woman thought to have become intolerably obsessive or overbearing in planning the details of her wedding (OED)

Bridezillas is a TV show that I used to watch whenever I was really bored. This word is supposed to use in a humorous manner, however whenever I think of a ‘bridezilla,’ I don’t find them to be humorous at all. It takes me back to a wedding I went to a long time ago. Never have I seen the bride as “vivacious” as she was while she was planning for her wedding (and moments right up to it). After her wedding, she returned to her happy, normal self, and even expressed remorse for acting in the manner she did. She would have been a great candidate for the TV show.