March 4 was National Grammar Day…really!!! But of course we can celebrate for the whole week, so let’s.
What do we call a person who loves grammar? Well, we can stretch the language a little and call that person a grammarphile, the suffix -phile meaning a lover of something. Related loves include linguaphile, someone who loves language and words, or logophile, a lover of words.
But what about someone who fears grammar? Is there a word for that? Of course. There is a word for most fears, even the most rare and weird. Some of these words you will find in the dictionary. Others are in more colloquial dictionaries or not in the dictionary at all.
Atelophobia – The fear of grammar. Maybe “fear” is going a little too far; grammar anxiety might be more fitting.
Here are a few more related fears:
Ortographobia – The fear of misspelling words. (Ortography is the correct spelling of words.)
Dysgrammatophobia – The fear of producing bad grammar.
Virguphobia – Fear of commas. (I wouldn’t lie to you.)
Pistaphobia – Fear of periods. Sometimes used to represent the fear of all punctuation.
Erotimatikophobia – Nope. Nothing to do with erotica. It is the fear of question marks.
Here are several more fears related to grammar and writing:
Allodoxaphobia- Fear of opinions.
Bibliophobia- Fear of books. (Bibliophile is a lover of books.)
Epistemophobia- Fear of knowledge.
Graphophobia- Fear of writing or handwriting.
Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia- Fear of long words. (I kid you not.)
Logophobia- Fear of words.
Metrophobia- Fear or hatred of poetry.
Onomatophobia- Fear of hearing a certain word or of names.
Scolionophobia- Fear of school.
Sophophobia- Fear of learning.
Symbolophobia- Fear of symbolism.
Verbophobia- Fear of words. (Ands not just verbs)
National Grammar Day, March 4, was established in 2008 by Martha Brockenbrough, She is the founder of the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar (SPOGG). She established the day to excite her students about grammar. President Bush sent a letter comemmorating the day. And yes, there is a National Punctuation Day, which is celebrated on September 24.
Asking for Help: I would love to do another Grammar and Punctuation Pet Peeves post. Please send your pet peeve(s) to me in an e-mail to bigwords101@yahoo.com. PLEASE do not send them as a comment to this post. They will not be printed as a comment. Thank you!!
Hello Arlene,
About origins:
virguphobia: virgule is French for comma
bibliophobia: the Bible means the Book, and so on.
But as you wrote, many of these words are never used!
Agnès
Thanks for the comment. Yes, many of the phobias have roots that make sense; they are not random. For example, chromophobia, fear or colors.
Do the grammar police and even the grammar Nazis count among the grammarphiles or not really?
Depends upon their motives. I don’t even like to use the term “grammar Nazis,” but the grammar police – maybe some of them.
Where do all these obscure words come from? Who created them? Who uses them?
Some of the common ones are “real words” in medical books. The obscure ones are often created for a one-time use and come from “indiscriminate sources.” Who uses them? Probably the person who made that one up, maybe once or twice. However, many of them have real origins in the language and are made from the Greek or Latin root word with phobia added to it. For example chronophobia is the fear of time.