It probably won’t surprise readers of Unorganized
Territory
that I subscribe to a word-of-the-day e-mail list. There are a lot of such Internet services available. The one that I signed up for is MyWordaDay. I don’t remember when I signed up for the daily messages from VocabVitamins.com. But I’m glad I did.
Each day I receive an entertaining message “to fortify my vocabulary.” It doesn’t cost anything to join, which is good because on busy days I just hit “delete” and ignore the word of the day. If I were paying for the service, I would feel obligated to stop and read it, which would add further stress to my day. With the free messages, I can choose to read or not to read—guilt free.
There is a theme for each week. There are usually a few familiar words that we all read or see or say on occasion. Then there are words such as irrecusable or rubescent. It’s not often that you can work words like that into the daily routine.
This week’s theme has been “Irrational Fears” and it has been quite educational.
For example, I knew that agoraphobia was an irrational fear of open or public spaces, but I did not know that ochlophobia has a very similar meaning—its definition is an abnormal fear of crowds.
I also knew that triskaidekaphobia means pathological fear or dislike of the number thirteen. Although I recognize the difficult-to-say word when I see it, I would never remember how to spell it, so it is nice to have a refresher. Just in case I ever do want to use it in a column.
This week I also learned that mysophobia is an abnormal fear of dirt or filth and its antonym is ablutophobia—the pathological fear of washing or bathing.
When I read ablutophobia, I thought it such an interesting and unusual word that I decided to do a little research. And I discovered there is a nearly unending list of phobias.
There are some phobias that we all recognize or can figure out like aquaphobia – fear of water or pyrophobia – fear of fire. A lot of people know that glossophobia is speech anxiety or the fear of public speaking.
And thanks to the 1990 horror film Arachnophobia,
about deadly Venezuelan spiders, nearly everyone knows that arachnophobia means fear or dislike of spiders. I suffer from this phobia. I didn’t have to watch the movie—just seeing the commercials gave me the shivers.
But did you know that chiroptophobia is the fear or dislike of bats? I didn’t either. How about musophobia—the fear or dislike of mice? I didn’t know that either, but at least it makes sense. It seems to come from the same root word as the rodent. And now my friend Gale has a name for her
phobia.
One of the most interesting fears I found while checking the meaning of various phobias was anemomenophobia. This is the fear of windmills, which had probably just about died out before the last decade. The phobia has returned in force as wind turbines have begun dotting our landscape.
Another one that made me laugh—apologies to my nervous friends—is phobophobia, which is a morbid fear or dread of developing a phobia. Although when I read that there is a disorder called sesquipedaliophobia that made me a little nervous. I would hate to develop this phobia— the fear of long words!
But there really isn’t anything to fear about having a phobia. Most phobias can be handled by avoidance— afraid of bats? Don’t enter caves. Mice? Get someone to set mouse traps for you. The number 13? Don’t hang out in high-rise buildings. Crowds? Don’t go to the mall.
If you are afraid of spiders, like me, just do all you can to avoid them. Don’t watch Arachnophobia.
Try not to think about them. Do not write about them in a column.
However, there is one phobia that might be tough to overcome. Unlike bats or mice or the number 13, it is not so easy to avoid. At least not here in northern Minnesota. My friend Bill discovered this phobia that might make a person have to move south—Chionophobia. Thefear of snow.
Now that is a phobia that could cause a problem!
Fear less, hope more; eat less,
chew more; whine less, breathe
more; talk less, say more; hate
less, love more; and all good
things are yours.
Swedish proverb
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