Since 1992
Print and digital marketing
By Barbara McAlister
Word of the Day: Phobia
The word “phobia” is from a Greek word meaning fear. Everyone experiences fear of some kind, but a phobia is an intense, irrational fear that may turn into overwhelming panic. Medically speaking, phobias are a form of anxiety disorder. Claustrophobia, the fear of being in an enclosed space, is a common phobia. It combines the Latin claustral “to enclose,” with “phobia.”
Arachnophobia, a fear of spiders, is another common fear, arachnids being spiders. Coulrophobia is the correct term for a fear of clowns, which is a relatively common fear. Stephen King may not be solely responsible for this, but his horror book, “It” didn’t help the clown cause.
The truly scary thing about phobias is there are a lot of documented phobias you probably never even thought about. Since phobia is a Greek word, phobias are properly made up of Latin or Greek words combined with the phobia suffix. Since many scary things weren’t around in ancient times, some of the words are creative. Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth, from arachi — “ground nut.” Didn’t realize peanut butter could cause a phobia? Some other actual phobias to obsess about are turophobia, a fear of cheese; pogonophobia, a fear of beards; and xanthophobia, fear of the color yellow. (A scary canary?)
Sanguivoriphobia is a fear of vampires, but it seems perfectly rational to be afraid of vampires. One of the longest words in the English language is clearly a cruel joke — hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia — the fear of long words.
