ORTHOPNOEA

by Joseph
(Pennsylvania)

/oar-thō-nē-uh/

Part of Speech: Noun

The inability to breathe while lying down
(From the Greek ortho, straight + pnoia, breath)
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Why I Think This Is A Cool Word

When it came to spelling, Greek was my death language, I
could easily plow through Slavic, German, Yiddish, or Italian
words but Greek used to bring me to a screeching halt. I finally
decided to crack down on Greek and this was among the first
twenty-five words I learned, and as of today is among my top
ten favorite words of all time. It's not just the odd spelling, but
for some reason it's fun to say, not too sure as to why though.
In addition to that I'm always interested by medical terms, some
other fun ones are:

strychnine
epidermolysis
polyposis
yttrium
stromuhr (Winning Word - 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee)

(Funny Side Note: Here I am mentioning medical terms, I look down at the word I have to type to confirm I'm not a robot, and the word is THORAX, what a coincidence)