New Words, Nonce Words

Dr. Goodword is talking about those words people make up within very specific context, not really for broad application by all English speakers–like the word cyberchondriac, intended to mean “a person who believes he is sick because his symptoms appear on a web page.”

“Now the real meaning of cyberchondriac should be ‘stomach governor,'” the doctor says, “for kybernan means ‘to govern’ in Greek while chondria is a Latin word meaning ‘stomach'” Apparently, a hypochondriac is so called because of the greek hupokhondria, which is the stomach or abdomen region and believed to be the “seat of melancholy.”

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