Re^3: Confused by some var names in perlref

[pryrt]

"septisyllabically" was probably an intentional neologism, in an attempt to be clever: "septi" from "septum", which is Latin for "seven", "syllabi" from "syllable", "ically" = "in the manner of": ie, "it's a seven-syllable way of saying 'associative array'" ('associative array' does indeed have seven syllables)

[LanX]

> "septisyllabically" was probably an intentional neologism

I wouldn't call it a neologism, rather a construction.

It's as logical as

• one https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/monosyllabically
• two https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/disyllabically
• three https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/trisyllabically

if you can count in Greek Latin*, that is. ;-)

update

NB: the same word in German - siebensilbig - is shorter and easily understood by German speakers.

*) doh ... thanks Eily++ ... see also Numeral_prefix

[Aldebaran]

German famously pastes words together to get new ones. The one that I use as illustrative for english speakers is "genital traffic" = Geshlechtsverkehr, = sex.

[LanX]

Sorry for destroying the myth, but ... :)

Geschlecht normally means "sex/gender", you'll find it on every passport without meaning "genital".

Verkehr also means intercourse, like in social contact.

It's a pretty formal word best translated as "sexual intercourse" and actually needs the same amount of space

Geschlechtsverkehr
sexual intercourse

Please note that it's not that hard to decode because the "s" was inserted to glue the two words.

(compare Sankt Petersburg which becomes "Sankt Peterburg" (Санкт-Петербу́рг) in Russian.)

German is very constructive, even kids can intuitively decipher words which are normally Latin/Greek monsters in English or French.

like hypoglycemic = unterzuckert (under sugared)