Anyone who knows me will know that I love Tolkien. And anyone who is a fellow Tolkien fan might find the title of this post reminiscent.
Do you remember the song Bilbo sang to the spiders in Mirkwood forest in The Hobbit?
Old fat spider spinning in a tree!
Old fat spider can’t see me!
Attercop! Attercop!
Won’t you stop,
Stop your spinning and look for me!
I found this delightful explanation of the word “attercop“. I always presumed it was made up; but no, it is still in use as a Yorkshire dialect word. I think I like the word “attercoppaphobia” better than “arachnophobia”. Perhaps I shall try to introduce it to the English language.
(Via World Wide Words)
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[...] What about shouting loudly? Or putting underpants on a person’s head? Or telling a person they are a pig when the interrogator knows that the person hates pigs? I think this kind of conduct is totally inappropriate, but I would not go so far as to say it was torture. There is a fine dividing line – for example, if someone threatened to harm a family member of a detainee, that is torture. Or if someone has a terrible fear of spiders, and the interrogators cover him in spiders? That is also torture. (Ugh. I’m having a moment of attercoppaphobia.) [...]