Somniphobia

The English suffixes -phobia, -phobic, -phobe (from Greek φόβος ''phobos'', "fear") occur in technical usage in psychiatry to construct words that describe irrational, abnormal, unwarranted, persistent, or disabling fear as a mental disorder (e.g., agoraphobia), in chemistry to describe chemical aversions (e.g., hydrophobic), in biology to describe organisms that dislike certain conditions (e.g., acidophobia), and in medicine to describe hypersensitivity to a stimulus, usually sensory (e.g., photophobia). In common usage, they also form words that describe dislike or hatred of a particular thing or subject (e.g., homophobia). The suffix is antonymic to -phil-.

For more information on the psychiatric side, including how psychiatry groups phobias such as agoraphobia, social phobia, or simple phobia, see phobia. The following lists include words ending in ''-phobia'', and include fears that have acquired names. In some cases, the naming of phobias has become a word game, a notable example being a 1998 humorous article published by BBC News.The A–Z of Fear
a 30 October 1998 BBC News unsigned article in the "Entertainment" section In some cases, a word ending in ''-phobia'' may have an antonym with the suffix ''-phil-'', e.g., Germanophobe/Germanophile.

Many ''-phobia'' lists circulate on the Internet, with words collected from indiscriminate sources, often copying each other. Also, a number of psychiatric websites exist that at the first glance cover a huge number of phobias, but in fact use a standard text to fit any phobia and reuse it for all unusual phobias by merely changing the name. Sometimes it leads to bizarre results, such as suggestions to cure "prostitute phobia". Such practice is known as content spamming and is used to attract search engines.

An article published in 1897 in the ''American Journal of Psychology'' noted, "the absurd tendency to give Greek names to objects feared (which, as Arndt says, would give us such terms as klopsophobia – fear of thieves and 'sic''">sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''– fear of the number 13 ...)".

Psychological conditions

Specialists may prefer to avoid the suffix ''-phobia'' and use more descriptive terms such as personality disorders, anxiety disorders, and avoidant personality disorder. Terms should strictly have a Greek prefix, although many are irregularly formed with Latin or even English prefixes. Many use inaccurate or imprecise prefixes, such as aerophobia (fear of air) for fear of flying.

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

V

X

Z

Cultural prejudices and discrimination

Ethnic/national/religious prejudices and discrimination

The suffix ''-phobia'' is used to coin terms that denote a particular anti-ethnic or anti-demographic sentiment, such as Americanophobia, Europhobia, Francophobia, Hispanophobia