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Jul 19, 2018
This week’s theme
There’s a word for it

This week’s words
cynophobia
phillumenist
virilocal
pathophobia
paragnosis

“You have to fall in love with hanging around words.” ~John Ciardi
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

pathophobia

PRONUNCIATION:
(path-uh-FO-bee-uh)

MEANING:
noun: An irrational fear of disease.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek patho- (suffering, disease) + -phobia (fear). Earliest documented use: 1873. A synonym is nosophobia. A related word is hypochondria.

USAGE:
“His lifelong pathophobia and his later fear of potential assassins were also characteristic.”
Max Domarus and Patrick Romane; The Essential Hitler: Speeches and Commentary; Bolchazy-Carducci; 2007.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, "Mother, what was war?" -Eve Merriam, poet and writer (19 Jul 1916-1992)

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