Making up words from existing ones: flossophobia and zitsfleisch

I dislike the word glossophobia as being a pseudo-technical word for fear of public speaking meant to amaze rather than inform. The venerable, plain English phrase “speech fright” does a better job. Way back on July 8, 2009 I blogged about how Glossophobia might as well mean the fear of waxing your car to a high gloss.

But glossophobia can be the starting point for another brand new fear word. When we back the g up one letter to f, we get flossophobia – the fear of flossing your teeth.

My father sometimes used the German compound word sitzfleisch. It literally means sitting flesh, but describes the ability to sit down and finish a task. At BBC Worklife on September 3, 2018 there was an article by Emily Schultheis titled Sitzfleisch: the German concept to get more work done.

If we swap the initial s in sitzfleisch with the z, we get zitsfleisch – a new word which describes the heartbreak of having acne.

At her Maniactive blog on December 2, 2019 Laura Bergells posted about Zhooshing up your business language with made-up or unusual words. She mentioned plussing. Jimmy Larche wrote an article about Walt Disney’s obsession with excellence: plussing.

The cartoon of a flossing reptile was recolored from one at Wikimedia Commons by Torill Kove for a book by Henrik Hovland. A 1905 photo of acne also came from Wikimedia Commons.