# Brain worm **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 18, 2014, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-worm/701656 "2014-10-18T04:09:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![OffByOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/45deac/32.png) [@OffByOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OffByOne)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-worm/701656/1 "2014-10-18T04:09:36Z")
If having a song that you cannot get out of your head is called an “ear worm”, then I have a brain worm. Many years ago, an acquaintance was denigrating his father, saying he didn’t know any four syllable words. My response was, “refrigerator, five syllables !” His response to that was, “ice box, two.” I couldn’t think of any other words of four or more syllables at that time. However, his father was a mechanic and surely would have known carburetor, generator, alternator, and radiator. Now (more that 40 years later!), I cannot stop trying to come up with counter-examples. Whenever I read, speak, hear, think of a longish word, I have to stop and count the syllables. Then I have to curse the fellow who put this in my head. Mundane and pointless, and now I have shared. California, Colorado, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Alabama, Mississippi, Connecticut, Minnesota, Minneapolis, Indiana, Indianapolis, Cincinnati. Desperado, democracy, constitution, disagreement, political, suicidal, homicidal, merry-go-round, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, dictionary, psychology. Aarrghh! ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-worm/701656/2 "2014-10-18T04:15:58Z")
Mundane: quotidian, unremarkable, ordinary, mediocre ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-worm/701656/3 "2014-10-18T09:46:55Z")
Science saves the day, once again. Biology, zoology, taxonomy, ethology, pathology, cosmology, astronomy, etc. Scientific! ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-worm/701656/4 "2014-10-18T09:53:36Z")
“[Perseverate](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perseverate)” would seem to be the most appropriate example (though “appropriate” is appropriate, too). ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-worm/701656/5 "2014-10-18T09:59:06Z")
No love for Pennsylvania? ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-worm/701656/6 "2014-10-18T10:29:08Z")
> [@kk\_fusion](#): > > No love for Pennsylvania? That’s 5. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-worm/701656/7 "2014-10-18T10:41:25Z")
I’m from Pennsylvania. I pronounce it “Pen-sull-vay-nyuh.” Four syllables. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-worm/701656/8 "2014-10-18T11:23:07Z")
West Virginia South Dakota North Dakota ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-worm/701656/9 "2014-10-18T12:16:42Z")
> [@kk\_fusion](#): > > No love for Pennsylvania? > [@njtt](#): > > That’s 5. Well, the OP did say > [@](#): > > My response was, “refrigerator, five syllables!” and > [@](#): > > I couldn’t think of any other words of four or more syllables at that time. and then went on to include some examples with more than 4 syllables: > [@](#): > > California… Minneapolis… Indianapolis… If Pennsylvania has 5 syllables then so does California. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2014, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-worm/701656/10 "2014-10-18T18:24:15Z")
> [@Bumbershoot](#): > > If Pennsylvania has 5 syllables then so does California. Well, yeah, if Gov. Schwarzenegger says it. 😃