Phobology (2 of 3)

I'm afraid the series on fears continues!

More multiply defined phobias and assorted thoughts about each.

• fever - febriphobia, pyrexiophobia. This one probably, er, spiked during the pandemic. I know I was nervous about it then.

• fire - pyrophobia, arsonphobia. Had to work on this a bit in Boy Scouts. Toasting marshmallows helped me get over it.

• flowers - botanophobia, anthophobia, bloomphobia. Botanophobia is more “plants in general.” No worries about this one, no matter how many times I saw plants killing people in Swamp Thing.

• fog - nebulaphobia, homichlophobia. Huh. I mean, I get it—something could be hiding in it. The closest I’ve gotten to this one is that I can nervy while driving in rain, thanks in part to a rain-related car accident.

• gay people - homophobia, gayphobia, homoerotophobia. I could put in biphobia, transphobia, and others, but I figure this one’s enough to represent the general idea. Thing is, these “phobias” often signify hate instead of fear—and while a lot of hate is rooted in fear, it can still be confusing to label one as the other. If the word homophobia weren’t so well established, I’d suggest something like mishomoeroty, using the same pattern as misogyny—miso is the Greek-based root meaning hate as phobia is the Greek-based root meaning fear.

• Germans - Germanophobia, Teutonophobia, Teutophobia. As above, something like misteutony would probably be more accurate. Borgmann also has “French culture - Francophobia, Gallophobia” and “Greek customs - Grecophobia, Hellenophobia,” and I will say I find it pretty funny to think of someone who hates Greeks being diagnosed with a word that has two Greek roots in it. Nowadays you could add “Islamophobia, Muslimphobia” and probably others.

• germs - mysophobia, bacteriophobia, microphobia, spermatophobia, spermophobia, bacillophobia. Mysophobia is the most common term used today but doesn’t appear in Borgmann’s list: it can also be fear of dirt. As I mentioned above, it’s weird that this is separate from the fear of disease (pathophobia) but fear isn’t always rational about cause and effect.

• getting heavier - obesophobia, pocrescophobia. I mean, we’re all a little worried about this one. (I changed it from “gaining weight” to make the earlier entries flow better.)

• glass - crystallophobia, hyalophobia, nelophobia, glassophobia (Scarecrow appearance from Catwoman #58, 1998). Does “fear of having to start wearing glasses again” count?

• heights - acrophobia, altophobia, hypsiphobia. I can’t say this has affected my life too much. I do seize up when I look down right under me from a high place like the Eiffel Tower—but I made it up the Eiffel Tower. I gotta say, though, the dizzying heights portrayed in the climax of the movie Up just seem to be more than I can handle. Most people have more trouble with the beginning of that movie…

• Hell - hadephobia, stygiophobia. I think some of this fear comes less from the torture and more from the idea of being judged and found wanting. I know someone who couldn’t get through the first episode of The Good Place for that reason.

• insanity - maniaphobia, lyssophobia. My brain is weird enough that this was a low-level anxiety for me for a while. I channeled some of that into writing Shanna Cochran, one of my most persistent fictional characters.

• left-side objects - sinistrophobia, levophobia. This can become a fear (or hatred) of left-handed people. The right-sided counterpart is dextrophobia.

• lice - pediculophobia, phthiriophobia, acarophobia. I don’t worry about these much, but I sure wouldn’t want ’em!

• light - photophobia, phengophobia. Phengophobia is more daylight-specific, but photophobia often means physical oversensitivity to light, not so much fear of it.

• men - androphobia, arrhenophobia. Kinda hard to find the line between irrational fear and rational caution on this one, especially in light of some post-election behavior. And that’s all I’ll say about that.

More tomorrow!