The English suffixes -phobia, -phobic, -phobe (of Greek origin: φόβος/φοβία ) occur in technical usage in psychiatry to construct words that describe irrational, disabling fear as a mental disorder (e.g., agoraphobia), in chemistry to describe chemical aversions (e.g., hydrophobic), in biology to describe organisms that dislike certain conditions (e.g., acidophobia), and in medicine to describe hypersensitivity to a stimulus, usually sensory (e.g., photophobia). In common usage they also form words that describe dislike or hatred of a particular thing or subject. The suffix is antonymic to -phil-.
Many people apply the suffix -phobia inappropriately to mild or irrational fears with no serious substance; however, earlier senses relate to psychiatry which studies serious phobias which disable a person's life. For more information on the psychiatric side of this, including how psychiatry groups phobias as agoraphobia, social phobia, or simple phobia, see phobia.
The following lists include words ending in -phobia, and include fears that have acquired names. In many cases people have coined these words as neologisms, and only a few of them occur in the medical literature. In many cases, the naming of phobias has become a word game, of notable example being a 1998 humorous article published by BBC News.[1]
Note too that no things, substances, or even concepts exist which someone, somewhere may not fear, sometimes irrationally so. A list of all possible phobias would run into many thousands.
Most of these terms tack the suffix -phobia onto a Greek word for the object of the fear (some use a combination of a Latin root with the Greek suffix, which many classicists consider linguistically impure).
In some cases (particularly the less medically-oriented usages), a word ending in -phobia may have an antonym with the suffix -phil-, e.g., Germanophobe / Germanophile.
See also the category:Phobias.
Additional recommended knowledge
Phobia lists
A large number of-phobia lists circulate on the Internet, with words collected from indiscriminate sources, often copying each other. Also, a number of psychiatric websites exist that at the first glance cover a huge number of phobias, but in fact use a standard text to fit any phobia and reuse it for all unusual phobias by merely changing the name.[2] Such practice is known as content spamming and is used to attract search engines. Some examples:
- "... The expert phobia team at CTRN's Phobia Clinic is board-certified to help with Russophobia and a variety of related problems. The success rate of our 24 hour program is close to 100%"
- "...We don't use hypnosis for Prostitute Phobia but our modern techniques are equally relaxing and enjoyable. Clients immediately notice that they feel different. Once the unconscious mind feels safe and learns how to respond appropriately, it will always know — so the results are permanent. Prostitute Phobia is gone. Forever." [1]
- "...To learn more about our 24-Hour Telephone Phobia Program, please call us at 1-800-828-7484 (+1-650-249-5120 from outside the USA) for a complimentary consultation to discuss the problem..." [2]
Psychological conditions
In many cases specialists prefer to avoid the suffix -phobia and use more descriptive terms, see, e.g., personality disorders, anxiety disorders, avoidant personality disorder, love-shyness, love sickness.
- Acrophobia, Altophobia — fear of heights.
- Agoraphobia — fear of a place or event where escape is impossible or when help is unavailable.
- Algophobia — fear of pain.
- Androphobia — fear of males.
- Aquaphobia, Hydrophobia — fear of water
- Arachnaphobia - fear of spiders
- Astraphobia, Astrapophobia, Brontophobia, Keraunophobia — fear of thunder, lightning and storms; especially common in young children.
- Autophobia — fear of being alone.
- Aviophobia, Aviatophobia — fear of flying.
- Bacillophobia, Bacteriophobia, Microbiophobia — fear of microbes and bacteria.
- Cibophobia, Sitophobia — aversion to food, synonymous to Anorexia nervosa.
- Claustrophobia — fear of confined spaces.
- Coulrophobia — fear of clowns (not restricted to evil clowns).
- Dental phobia, Dentophobia, Odontophobia — fear of dentists and dental procedures.
- Dysmorphophobia, or body dysmorphic disorder — a phobic obsession with a real or imaginary body defect.
- Emetophobia — fear of vomiting.
- Ergasiophobia, Ergophobia — fear of work or functioning, or a surgeon's fear of operating.
- Erotophobia — fear of sexual love or sexual questions.
- Erythrophobia — pathological blushing.
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- Genophobia, Coitophobia — fear of sexual intercourse.
- Glossophobia — fear of speaking in public or of trying to speak.
- Gymnophobia — fear of nudity.
- Heliophobia — fear of sunlight.
- Hemophobia, Haemophobia — fear of blood.
- Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia — fear of the number 666.
- Hoplophobia — fear of firearms (guns).
- Lalophobia, Laliophobia — fear of speaking.
- Ligyrophobia - fear of loud noises.
- Mysophobia — fear of germs, contamination or dirt.
- Necrophobia — fear of death, the dead.
- Neophobia, Cainophobia, Cainotophobia, Cenophobia, Centophobia, Kainolophobia, Kainophobia — fear of newness, novelty.
- Nosophobia — fear of contracting a disease
- Nyctophobia, Achluophobia, Lygophobia, Scotophobia — fear of darkness.
- Osmophobia, Olfactophobia — fear of smells.
- Paraskavedekatriaphobia, Paraskevidekatriaphobia, Friggatriskaidekaphobia — fear of Friday the 13th.
- Panphobia — fear of everything or constantly afraid without knowing what is causing it
- Phonophobia — fear of loud sounds.
- Pyrophobia — fear of fire.
- Radiophobia — fear of radioactivity or X-rays.
- Sociophobia — fear/dislike of society or people in general (see also "sociopath").
- Taphophobia — fear of the grave, or fear of being placed in a grave while still alive.
- Technophobia — fear of technology (see also Luddite).
- Tetraphobia - fear of the number 4.
- Tokophobia — fear of childbirth.
- Triskaidekaphobia, Terdekaphobia — fear of the number 13.
- Trypanophobia, Aichmophobia, Belonephobia, Enetophobia — fear of needles, injections or of pointed objects.
- Xenophobia — fear of strangers, foreigners, or aliens.
Zoophobias
Non-psychological conditions
The following medical conditions have nothing to do with irrational fears. However, each usually has a psychological disorder of the same name which is an irrational fear. The behavior of an individual with the medical condition can be similar to the behavior of an individual with the psychological disorder of the same name (e.g., for both usages of Photophobia the person avoids light). The difference in usage is that for the medical term there is an underlying physiological condition that results in the behavior. For example, with medical Photophobia the hypersensitivity to light is sufficient such that at some light levels the person experiences pain which they avoid by seeking darkness. Removing the physiological cause of the hypersensitivity to light results in the person no longer avoiding light. With psychological Photophobia the person fears the light even though there is no current physiological pain caused by light.
- Hydrophobia — fear of water (a symptom of rabies).
- Photophobia — hypersensitivity to light causing aversion to light (a symptom of Meningitis).
- Phonophobia — hypersensitivity to sound causing aversion to sounds.
- Osmophobia — hypersensitivity to smells causing aversion to odors.
Biology, chemistry
Biologists use a number of -phobia/-phobic terms to describe predispositions by plants and animals against certain conditions. For antonyms, see here.
- Acidophobia/Acidophobic — preference for non-acidic conditions.
- Heliophobia/Heliophobic — aversion to sunlight.
- Hydrophobia/Hydrophobic — a property of being repelled by water.
- Lipophobicity — a property of fat rejection
- Photophobia/Photophobic — a negative phototaxis or phototropism response.
- Superhydrophobe — the property given to materials that are extremely difficult to get wet.
- Thermophobia/Thermophobic — aversion to heat.
- Xerophobia/Xerophobic — aversion to dryness.
Prejudices
One can readily use the suffix -phobia to coin a term that denotes a particular anti-ethnic sentiment, such as Francophobia. Often a synonym with the prefix "anti-" already exists: Polonophobia vs. anti-Polonism. See "List of anti-ethnic terms" for more examples. Anti-religious sentiments are expressed in terms such as Christianophobia and Islamophobia.
Other prejudices include
- Biphobia — dislike of bisexuals, by either monosexually heterosexuals or homosexuals.
- Chemophobia — prejudice against artificial substances in favour of 'natural' substances.
- Ephebiphobia — fear/dislike of youth.
- Gerontophobia — fear of growing old or a hatred of old people.
- Heterophobia — fear/dislike of heterosexuals.
- Homophobia — aversion to homosexuality or fear of homosexuals. (This word has become a common political term, and many people interpret it as a slur.)
- Transphobia — fear or dislike of transgender or transsexual people.
- Xenophobia — fear or dislike of foreigners
Jocular and fictional phobias
- Aibohphobia — a joke term for the fear of palindromes, which is a palindrome itself.
- Anachrophobia (book title) — fear of temporal displacement.
- Anatidaephobia — fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you (fictional, from a Gary Larson cartoon published in The Far Side Gallery, 4).
- Anoraknophobia- fear of spiders wearing anoraks: it is a portmanteau of "anorak" and "arachnophobia. Used in the Wallace and Gromit comic book Anoraknophobia [3]. Also the title of an album [4] by Marillion.
- Arachibutyrophobia — fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth. The word is used by Peter O'Donnell in his 1985 Modesty Blaise adventure novel Dead Man's Handle.[3] It had circulated, unattributed, in the Internet for some time until it landed at the CTRN Phobia Clinic website: "Working one-on-one with one of our team, with guaranteed lifetime elimination of Sticky Peanut Butter Phobia. From $1497 and up."
- Arachnophobiaphobia — the fear of people who are afraid of spiders. From Gilmore Girls episode 6.22, "Partings":
- LORELAI: What's it called when you're afraid of people who are afraid of spiders? ‘Cause that one I’ve got.
- EMILY: Oh, lord.
- CAROLYN: I don't think there's a technical term for that yet.
- LORELAI: How about arachnophobiaphobia? 'Cause that makes sense.
- Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia — fear of long words. Hippopoto- "big" due to its allusion to the Greek-derived word hippopotamus (though this is derived as hippo- "horse" compounded with potam-os "river", so originally meaning "river horse"; according to the Oxford English, hippopotamine has been construed as large since 1847, so this coinage is reasonable); -monstr- is from Latin words meaning "monstrous", -o- is a pseudo-Greek noun-compounding vowel; -sesquipedali- comes from "sesquipedalian" meaning a long word (literally "a foot and a half long" in Latin), -o- is a pseudo-Greek noun-compounding vowel, and -phobia means "fear". Note: This was mentioned on the first episode of Brainiac Series Five as one of Tickle's Teasers.
- Luposlipaphobia — the fear of being pursued by timber wolves around a kitchen table while wearing socks on a newly-waxed floor (fictional, also from Gary Larson in the cartoon series The Far Side).
- Phobophobia — the fear of fear itself.
- Venustraphobia, fear of beautiful women, according to a 1998 humorous article published by BBC News.[1] The word is a portmanteau of "Venus trap" and "phobia".
Miscellaneous
- Chromophobia (film)
- Choreophobia — hatred of dance, a book by Anthony Shay about Iranian dance and its prohibition after the Iranian Revolution
- Entomophobia — a genus of orchids.
- Venustraphobia — a 2006 album by Casbah Club.
References
- ^ a b The A- Z of Fear, an October 30, 1998 BBC News unsigned article in the "Entertainment" section
- ^ Content Spammers Help You Overcome Prostitute Phobia
- ^ The word appears in Chapter 10 when Modesty Blaise and her companion Willie Garvin play a word game in which Garvin challenges Blaise to decipher the meaning of words
- Chris Aldrich (2002-12-02). The Aldrich Dictionary of Phobias and Other Word Families. Trafford Publishing. ISBN 1-55369-886-X.
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