Tightrope walking satirical or acidic contexts. Nicholas Taleb uses the phrase in his book "The Black Swan". "You get respect for doing funambulism or spectator sports". Taleb is criticising scientists who prefer popularism to vigorous research and those who walk a fixed and narrow path rather than explore a large field of empirical study. Tightrope walking Tightrope walking, also called funambulism, is the skill of walking along a thin wire or rope. It has a long tradition in various countries and is commonly associated with the circus. Other skills similar to tightrope walking include slack rope walking and slacklining. Acrobats maintain their
Longest word in French letter "s" to the end. The adjective "interdépartemental" (18 letters), which also appears in the list, can be pluralised by appending the letters "es". Longest word in French This article lists some of the longest words in the French language. The longest word listed below, "hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobie" (36 letters) is the fear (or phobia) of long words. The word is formed from the Latin word "sesquipedalia" (singular "sesquipedalis"), which the Ancient Roman poet Horace used in "Ars Poetica" to describe excessively long words; literally, it means "a foot-and-a-half long". The length of the word "hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobie" is embellished with the prefix "hippopotomonstro"