Phobia – from the Greek phobos, meaning fear.
Many of us, probably most of us, have phobias. I have spheksophobia, the fear of wasps. I am sure I have several more as well. There are hundreds of phobias. Some are common and well known. Others appear to have simply been made up and are more sensationalist phobias, but I am sure at least someone somewhere suffers from each of these phobias.
This is not anywhere near a complete list, but these phobias are certainly unusual:
- Allodoxaphobia- Fear of opinions
- Anablephobia- Fear of looking up
- Asymmetriphobia- Fear of asymmetrical things
- Cathisophobia- Fear of sitting
- Chirophobia- Fear of hands
- Consecotaleophobia- Fear of chopsticks
- Dikephobia- Fear of justice
- Epistemophobia- Fear of knowledge
- Genuphobia- Fear of knees
- Koinoniphobia- Fear of rooms
- Leukophobia- Fear of the color white
- Levophobia- Fear of things to the left side of the body
- Melophobia- Fear or hatred of music
- Nomatophobia- Fear of names
- Omphalophobia- Fear of belly buttons
- Optophobia- Fear of opening one’s eyes
- Panophobia or Pantophobia- Fear of everything
- Philosophobia- Fear of philosophy
- Phronemophobia- Fear of thinking
- Pteronophobia- Fear of being tickled by feathers
- Sitophobia or Sitiophobia- Fear of food or eating
- Theatrophobia- Fear of theatres
- Verbophobia- Fear of words
- Xylophobia- 1) Fear of wooden objects. 2) Forests
- Zemmiphobia- Fear of the great mole rat
Phobia implies an irrational fear. There are some things that most of us are afraid of to some extent:
- Antlophobia- Fear of floods
- Atomosophobia- Fear of atomic explosions
- Aviophobia or Aviatophobia- Fear of flying
- Cancerophobia or Carcinophobia- Fear of cancer
- Enochlophobia- Fear of crowds
- Eremophobia- Fear of being oneself or of loneliness
- Felinophobia- Fear of cats
- Gelotophobia- Fear of being laughed at
- Gerascophobia- Fear of growing old
- Herpetophobia- Fear of reptiles or creepy, crawly things
- Hoplophobia- Fear of firearms
- Lilapsophobia- Fear of tornadoes and hurricanes
- Nosocomephobia- Fear of hospitals
- Ophidiophobia- Fear of snakes
- Social Phobia- Fear of being evaluated negatively in social situations
- Spectrophobia- Fear of specters or ghosts
Hi, Arlene
Some of these phobias are more or less reasonable, so I can’t say I actually fear them. For instance, atomic bombs are the end-all, be-all of the end of humanity. For that reason, I actually don’t “fear” it since I honestly don’t believe it will ever happen. (My husband is a retired naval officer who has a master’s degree in nuclear engineering among other such degrees, so he knows what he’s talking about.)
The fear of flying is moderately reasonable, especially when the plane you’re on is flying at 35,000 feet above the earth. I refused to fly to Guam because it would mean flying over the Mariana Trench, the deepest fissure on earth. No way, Jose. Not happening. My husband laughed about at me about it. He told me that if something brought the airplane down, I would already be dead when it hit the water, so if we landed in the trench, so be it. NO WAY! I’m extremely fond of terra firma. But I’ve flown over the Northern Atlantic Ocean and all over the United States. Do I love it? No. I hate sitting beside a person who talks their head off while I’m trying to read my latest tale, whatever it currently is. I also dislike sitting beside a person a whole lot bigger than I am, either height or weight–or worse–both. They spread all over their seat AND mine. I also dislike sitting beside a person who has a genuine fear of flying. I tried to get the person put into a different seat, but nope. So I had the dubious pleasure to watching the person hit the floor of the plane every single time the plane shook a bit during flying. Ah-h, well.
Flooding? Well, I wouldn’t be the least bit happy about that, but I can’t say I fear it. Thankfully, our house is built on a rather high hill. It happened that our contractor chose the place on our land, so I regard it as something which is more or less a coincidence.
Snakes and me? We aren’t friends. YUCK. Yes, I guess I’m afraid of them.
I’m also afraid of Daddy Longlegs. I have been since I was eight years old. Go figure. They’re as ugly as sin. Maybe that’s it. Who knows? But when you live in a warm-ish environment, you’re going to find them. I just stay away from them and we’re friends as long as they stay away from me. Same thing goes with spiders, although I have to say I love to watch orb spiders as they build their webs and eventually lay their egg sacks. Pretty cool.
Thanks so much for the comments! Some of them hit home. I don’t love to fly, and it still scares me, but I do it. Speaking of sitting near large people, I was once seated in a three-seat row with a couple who both needed seatbelt expanders. They were both very large, and I had to space at all. I managed to get my seat changed! I have always been terrified of wasps, bees and other stinging insects. In Florida, there are other insects that disgust me. And I had a snake in my patio a while back. A harmless snake, but a snake nonetheless!!
What about obesophobia, fear of becoming fat? Sometimes lipophobia means the same thing.
We can see where both of those words come from! So, is that a weird one or a normal one???? Thanks for the addition! There are hundreds of them!