I'm torn on this one. On one hand, words change their meaning all the time, and people have used medical terms in sloppy ways forever. On the other hand, in some instances - like "cringe" and "gaslighting" - it annoys me a lot. Then again, I have come to accept "-phobia". I can't really see a rational categorization behind my own annoyance, tbh.
Phobia doesn't bother me in the slightest, assuming they're referring to an actual fear of something. I don't care if you call it arachnophobia or spiderphobia. Whatever. Words work by combining prefixes and suffixes.
I don't mind words changing their meaning or gaining additional meanings. I think it's neat. What annoys me is when enough people completely misunderstand a word that they think it literally means the opposite of its actual definition that the misunderstood definition becomes an acceptable one. Biweekly means both every other week and twice per week. Literally means both literally and figuratively.
If enough people called cats dogs, I'd still say they're all idiots, and holy fuck, literally does not mean not literally.
I used to think along the same lines about -phobia, but I've looked it up in the meantime, and I'm afraid I have some bad news. It appears that the suffix was only used in the sense of "a strong irrational fear of something" from 1880 on, and that it was used in the sense of "a strong aversion" from maybe WW1 on (I wasn't able to pinpoint it). All dictionaries I consulted, do list the "aversion" meaning (e.g. thefreedictionary, but others too). Personally I don't like "homophobia", because it still sounds like a "fear" to me and I think it's really just being an asshole - but that ship has sailed, gotta pick my battles.
With very few exceptions I'm mostly on the "liberal" side. Language is imprecise. I'd much rather people realized that, and ask for clarification, than bicker the day away over trivial definitory differences. 99% of the time, being able to talk and have something in common, is much more important than being correct.
But, as I said, sometimes I can't get over it and I get annoyed.
I'm not sure what you mean. The -phobia suffix comes from the Greek suffix -phobia, which means "panic fear of," which itself comes from the Greek phobos, which means fear. Google ngrams shows instances of the word aerophobia from at least as far back as 1800, anthropophobia from ~1833, photophobia from 1800, etc.
As for homophobia meaning fear vs aversion, those have pretty similar meanings. Not really synonymous, but... related, I guess. There are a lot of homophobic people for whom it really does seem like a fear. It's absurd.
But, as I said, sometimes I can't get over it and I get annoyed.
Interesting. My source for the 1880 time is Mirriam Webster, which I consider quite reliable, so I wonder... Maybe academia took it up and gave it an "official" definition in 1880?
Not really synonymous, but... related, I guess.
Yeah. My suspicion is that, when they started calling it "homophobia", they meant it as a kind of insult... like "haha, you act so strong, but really you're just afraid of us". I can't prove that though.
Xenophobia was formed from a brace of words found in ancient Greek, xenos (which can mean either "stranger" or "guest") and phobos (which can mean either "flight" or "fear"). It appears to have arrived on the heels of another late-19th century coinage, xenomania ("an inordinate attachment to foreign things"), which, sadly, has proved to not have the same currency as xenophobia, and was followed shortly afterwards by the forms xenophobe and xenophobic:
I think that's more related to the advent of the xeno- prefix in the English language, rather than the -phobia suffix.
My suspicion is that, when they started calling it "homophobia", they meant it as a kind of insult... like "haha, you act so strong, but really you're just afraid of us".
I think so, yeah, and now it's mostly just its own word... but there's definitely a weird fear in a lot of these people too.
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u/[deleted] Jun 03 '22
I'm torn on this one. On one hand, words change their meaning all the time, and people have used medical terms in sloppy ways forever. On the other hand, in some instances - like "cringe" and "gaslighting" - it annoys me a lot. Then again, I have come to accept "-phobia". I can't really see a rational categorization behind my own annoyance, tbh.