A Blogging Drive
Top Ten Unusual Phobias
Haphephobia
| Haphephobia is a morbid fear of being touched. The person coping with this phobia may also exhibit an overwhelming fear of touching others. Some haphephobic individuals are fearful of their personal space being encroached upon while others may be fearful of contamination through touch.This phobia is sometimes referred to as Haptephobia, Aphephobia or Thixophobia. Haphephobia derives from the Greek word “haphe”, meaning touch and “phobos” meaning fear.
Haptein is a Greek word that means to fasten (that is, to bring two things together). Haptics is the English word for “a science concerned with the sense of touch,” used in technologies like touch-screen displays that let users feel clicks. |
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Doraphobia
| Doraphobia is the dread of touching the skin or fur of an animal. An abnormal and persistent fear of fur. Sufferers of this fear avoid fur-bearing animals such as dogs, cats, foxes, beavers and rabbits because fur is repulsive to them. Perhaps some of these phobics associate fur with childhood stories about “the big bad wolf” and other fur-bearing predators. Dora is a Greek word that means “the skin or hide of an animal.”The root word dora comes from the Greek verb derein, meaning “to skin or to flay.” This is also the source of derm, the Greek word for skin, which shows up in words like “dermatology”. |
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Eremophobia
| Eremophobia is the morbid dread of being alone. It is classified as a part of the depression spectrum and can manifest after trauma or loss of a loved one. The specifics of the illness are still vague but I have had been dealing with this through a friend for over a year now. It has been trying times for everyone involved and has left me physically and mentally drained to the point where I question the root of the friendship.
The Greek word erēmia means desert (a place where there are no other people). The word hermit shares the same Greek root, but a hermit may find solace rather than dread in solitude. |
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Ergophobia
| Ergophobia is a fear of or aversion to work. Ergophobia, or ergasiophobia, is a general fear of the workplace, or of things that occur in it. The person with ergophobia is probably well aware that he/she suffers from this condition. He may fear losing a job, being unable to perform certain aspects of the job (such as meeting deadlines or giving presentations), or with any task may encounter extreme anxietyErgon is the Greek word for work.
This word shows a family resemblance to the words ergonomic and ergometer. |
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Hypnophobia
| Hypnophobia is the morbid fear of sleep.The word hypnos is the Greek word for sleep.
Hypnotize is a word that shares the same Greek roots. |
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Brontophobia
| Brontophobia is an abnormal fear of thunder. An abnormal and persistent fear of thunder that causes undue anxiety even though sufferers realize that thunder itself poses no threat to them. When outdoors during a thunderstorm, they may suffer excessive anxiety. When indoors, they may hide under beds or desks, behind sofas, or in closets.Bronto is from the Greek word that means thunder.
The same root gives us the name of the brontosaurus (literally, “thunder lizard”). |
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Kakorrhaphiophobia
| Kakorrhaphiophobia is an abnormal fear of failure.The Greek word kakorrhaphia means a clever or devious plot or plan, derived from kakos, meaning bad or evil.
The English word cacophony shares the same Greek roots. |
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Ophidiophobia
| Ophidiophobia is an abnormal fear of snakes.The Greek word Ophis means snake.
Two other English words with similar roots are ophiomorphic, meaning “snakelike in form” and ophiophagous, which means “feeding on snakes.” |
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Taphephobia
| Taphephobia is the fear of being buried alive.The Greek word taphē means burial or grave.
You can see the same Greek root in the English word epitaph (an inscription on a tomb). |
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Phobophobia
| Phobophobia is an excessive fear of acquiring a phobia.The Greek word phobos means “fear or flight.”
When there’s nothing left to fear but fear itself, this word is the perfect double whammy of the Greek word for fear. |
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| Print article | This entry was posted by glo on April 18, 2010 at 12:51 pm, and is filed under Entertainment. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
