Scriptophobia? Not me.
Today’s news sources are reveling in the opportunity to report US representative Hank Johnson’s concern that Guam would eventually “tip over” into the ocean due to over population. He didn’t mean this literally, of course, and he later went on to explain that he was referring to the future of the island’s fragile eco-system rather than the island itself. Regardless, my thought process immediately veered away from the quite likely very important issues surrounding Guam and its growing US military population, to images of an island falling into the ocean.
This thought led me to tsunamis and that thought led me to those of an old friend who had a morbid fear of tsunamis. Now, bearing in mind I knew this person prior to the devastating Indonesian tsunami of 2004, I thought his fear quite ridiculous. He was from Britain, an island, yes, but an island with a risk of tsunamis, no, and he had never encountered one. It was fascinating to me that someone could have a fear, or even a phobia of something they were so unlikely to ever come across. His girlfriend and I made him watch The Day After Tomorrow with us and his panic was almost palpable, which I’m sorry to say we found hilarious - as I mentioned, prior to the Indonesian tsunami.
So thinking about my friend with the fear of tsunamis led me to thinking about other strange phobias. Now this is a topic I am quite enthralled by, not only because the fears themselves are so interesting (genuphobia for instance, is a fear of knees) but because they often gift us with the opportunity to use such meaty and playful words, if you ignore the fact that they all end in ‘phobia,’ of course. Here are some of my favorites:
~Stygiophobia: A fear of Hell, which is a perfectly reasonable fear if you ask me.
~Mnemophobia: A fear of memories, just because it seems so unfortunate.
~Spheksophobia: A fear of wasps, because I completely appreciate this one.
~Linonophobia: A fear of string, which to me is as ridiculous as fearing knees, and finally…
~Sesquipedalophobia or Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, both of which mean a fear of long words.
It’s a good job there isn’t such a thing as a fear of irony.
This thought led me to tsunamis and that thought led me to those of an old friend who had a morbid fear of tsunamis. Now, bearing in mind I knew this person prior to the devastating Indonesian tsunami of 2004, I thought his fear quite ridiculous. He was from Britain, an island, yes, but an island with a risk of tsunamis, no, and he had never encountered one. It was fascinating to me that someone could have a fear, or even a phobia of something they were so unlikely to ever come across. His girlfriend and I made him watch The Day After Tomorrow with us and his panic was almost palpable, which I’m sorry to say we found hilarious - as I mentioned, prior to the Indonesian tsunami.
So thinking about my friend with the fear of tsunamis led me to thinking about other strange phobias. Now this is a topic I am quite enthralled by, not only because the fears themselves are so interesting (genuphobia for instance, is a fear of knees) but because they often gift us with the opportunity to use such meaty and playful words, if you ignore the fact that they all end in ‘phobia,’ of course. Here are some of my favorites:
~Stygiophobia: A fear of Hell, which is a perfectly reasonable fear if you ask me.
~Mnemophobia: A fear of memories, just because it seems so unfortunate.
~Spheksophobia: A fear of wasps, because I completely appreciate this one.
~Linonophobia: A fear of string, which to me is as ridiculous as fearing knees, and finally…
~Sesquipedalophobia or Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, both of which mean a fear of long words.
It’s a good job there isn’t such a thing as a fear of irony.
posted by Rebecca at
4:34 PM
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