Phobias

Phobias, like collective nouns, are (deservedly, IMHO) a contentious subject in quizzes. I have no doubt that many of them are made up specifically for this purpose, by people who clearly have nothing better to do; I give you "Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia – fear of the number 666". Even if it is a recognised medical condition, why would any member of the medical profession attempt to get his (or her) teeth round this monstrosity, when he (or she) could just say "fear of the number 666"?  But once one source has published such made–up words, others seem to think this gives them a licence to blindly replicate them; on the Internet they spread like wildfire – and are gleefully picked up by quiz question setters who have neither imagination nor discretion.

My investigation into agliophobia – see below – reinforces my assertion that this is definitely a subject where the blind lead the blind.

It's because I'm sceptical about how many of these terms are actually used by the medical profession that you find this page in General Knowledge rather than Science.

This page lists some phobias that seem to me to have some validity, and/or keep turning up in quizzes. (Triskaidekaphobia falls into the latter category; and nomophobia is a more recent entry, which was clearly made up – probably as a joke – by someone who doesn't know a word of Greek, or Latin, and has no business making up such words.) Many more phobias, which I haven't listed, can be deduced (or made up, if you're that way inclined) by reference to my Prefixes and Suffixes page.

Acrophobia		Heights
Agliophobia		Pain (but see below!)
Agoraphobia		Open spaces
Ailurophobia		Cats
Algophobia		Pain (correct version!)
Arachnophobia		Spiders
Astraphobia		Lightning
Baccillophobia		Microbes or bacteria
Bathmophobia		Stairs, or steep slopes
Brontophobia		Thunder
Chrometophobia or Chrenmatophobia		Money
Claustrophobia		Confined spaces
Cynophobia		Dogs
Gerontophobia		Growing old (or old people)
Gymnophobia		Nakedness
Gynophobia (or gynephobia)		Women
Musophobia		Mice
Nomophobia		Losing one's mobile phone
Ophidiophobia		Snakes
Phasmophobia		Ghosts
Pogonophobia		Beards
Taphephobia		Being buried alive (from the Greek word for a grave)
Triskaidekaphobia		The number 13
Trypanophobia		Needles, injections, or sharp pointy things in general
Xenophobia		Strangers or foreigners

© Haydn Thompson 2017–21