phobia

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈfəʊ.bi.ə/ (UK); /ˈfoʊ.bi.ə/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is a use as a word of -phobia,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Late Latin and New Latin compounds in -phobia,^[2][3][4] from Ancient Greek φόβος (phóbos, “fear, panic; originally flight”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Fear, horror or aversion, especially of a morbid character (1786).^[7][3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

Greek phóbos originally meant “flight”, its only sense in Homer, and became the common word for fear through the notion of panic flight.^[4] The English word was perhaps based on a similar use in French.^[4] The psychological sense, an abnormal and irrational fear of a particular thing, is recorded by 1895.^[4][7] Phobic dates from 1897, and as a noun, a person with a phobia, from about 1968.^[3]

Timeline

• 1786 – fear, aversion.^[7][3][4][5]
• 1895 – an abnormal, irrational fear (psychology).^[4]
• 1897 – phobic.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A persistent, abnormal or irrational fear of a particular thing or situation that makes one avoid it.
2. A strong fear, dislike or aversion.

Word family

• phobic

Related words

• -phobe
• -phobia
• -phobic
• fear
• Phobos

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press