Shashi Tharoor reacts to viral satirical video, Twitterverse picks up a dictionary

More often than not, Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor tweets a word that most do not understand. This time, it was the word 'hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia' which made the internet pick up the dictionary.

This tweet was in response to the video of comedian Saloni Gaur, also called Nazma Aapi, imitating Tharoor. She was talking about Sushmita Sen's new web series, Aarya, as she imitates the similarities between Shashi Tharoor and the character played by Chandrachur Singh.

Film maker Hansal Mehta who came across this video, retweeted it, tagging Shashi Tharoor. Mehta, wrote, "This is quite brilliant. Shashi Tharoor, have you seen this?"

In response, Shashi said, “Flattered by the comedic imitation. However, I would like to believe that I am not such a garrulous sesquipedalian... Clearly the artiste on the screen does not suffer from hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia!”

The tweet sent netizens in a frenzy, many replied with screenshots of what the words meant, while others turned this into an opportunity for memes.

User @jameelsjam tweeted, “Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is one of the longest words in the dictionary — and, in an ironic twist, is the name for a fear of long words. Sesquipedalophobia is another term for the social phobia,” pointing out the irony in the usage of the word.

User @folitically, tweeted a gif, with the caption, “Me trying to find the meaning of those two word”

Another user, @liberalbillu, tweeted, “If anything , we're certainly getting a hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia”

However, this is not the first instance of Shashi Tharoor using the word 'hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia'. In 2018, when he launched his book, The Paradoxical Prime Minister, for the first time he tweeted this word evoking a similar reaction.