--- In unusualphobias@yahoogroups.com, "Steve Cobert" <sjcobert@y...>
wrote:
> WHAT IS DIKEPHOBIA??? (Answer below)
>
> Since phobias, by and large, are named after Latin descriptions of
> the fear in question, it follows that sometimes a phobia has a name
> that is at best unintelligible, and at worst downright misleading,
if
> you don't happen to be really sharp in Latin. "Hippophobia", for
> example, is fear of a particular animal known for its size and
> strength. What animal, you may ask? Why, a HORSE, of course!
>
> Sometimes (though rarely) I think the problem works in the opposite
> way. In the past 20-25 years, "homophobia" has become accepted as
> meaning a fear of homosexuals. I have to wonder, though... did it
> have an accepted meaning BEFORE the popular meaning kicked
> in? "Homo" is Latin for "same", and the phobiaslist.com website
> states that homophobia can also mean fear of sameness or monotony.
I
> have to wonder if it could also mean fear of meeting one's own
> identical twin. (Hey, the concept was made into an episode of the
> original "Star Trek"! Whatever that episode was with Lazarus...)
>
> There are probably a slew of such misleading phobias around. I'm
not
> even going to try and list a bunch of them, but will just leave you
> with this: If you guessed that "Dikephobia" is the fear of
lesbians,
> you guessed wrong. I have heard it alternatively described
as "Fear
> of justice" or "Fear of going to jail".



Why is it that more unusual phobias are not named. I've visited the
phobia list website and they have names for all sorts of phobias.
Yet, there are phobias that, although unusual, are not named or
recognised at all. It seems a shame. My fear of toilets is not
recognised but only after visiting the unusual phobias website I now
realise that it's not uncommon, perhaps not so unusual.

LOOBRUSH