coulrophobia: fear of clowns

Tomorrow is the big day. After weeks of counting down, tomorrow it’s going to happen. Tomorrow is blood test day. Don’t be worried, faithful Grammar Party readers. It’s just a regular blood test, annual check-up-style. So it wouldn’t be a big deal except that a nurse is going to come at me with a really scary, pointy-jabby needle and thrust it into my arm and extract my blood from me. I’m sure she’ll know from the tears streaming down my face and the hyperventilating that I am at least semi-unwilling, yet will semi-reluctantly undergo this procedure for the protection of my physical health.

Okay, I’ll say it. I have aichmophobia, fear of needles. And while I’m at it, I also have trypanophobia, fear of injections.

It’s difficult to find someone who isn’t excessively horrified about something, right? There’s the heavy hitters, agoraphobia, arachnophobia, claustrophobia, but there’s a whole mess of phobias most people aren’t as familiar with. And that’s what this post is about today, the strange names for uncommon phobias, lovingly compiled by a phobia-stricken word nerd for your pleasure. Enjoy.

Arithmophobia – fear of numbers
Barophobia – fear of gravity
Bibliophobia – fear of books
Blennophobia – fear of slime
Cacophobia – fear of ugliness
Clinophobia – fear of going to bed
Coulrophobia – fear of clowns
Daemonophobia – fear of demons
Dendrophobia – fear of trees
Dikephobia – fear of justice
Electrophobia – fear of electricity
Ereuthrophobia – fear of blushing
Euphobia – fear of hearing good news
Geliophobia – fear of laughter
Geniophobia – fear of chins
Genuphobia – fear of knees
Graphophobia – fear of writing or handwriting
Hellenologophobia – fear of Greek terms or complex scientific terminology
Helminthophobia – fear of being infested with worms
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia – fear of long words
Ideophobia – fear of ideas
Kosmikophobi – fear of cosmic phenomenon
Lachanophobia – fear of vegetables
Leukophobia – fear of the color white
Logizomechanophobia – fear of computers
Mechanophobia – fear of machines
Mycophobia – fear or aversion to mushrooms
Namatophobia – fear of names
Numerophobia – fear of numbers
Novercaphobia – fear of your stepmother
Octophobia – fear of the figure 8
Olfactophobia – fear of smells
Ouranophobia – fear of heaven
Papyrophobia – fear of paper
Pentheraphobia – fear of mother-in-law
Plutophobia – fear of wealth
Pogonophobia – fear of beards
Porphyrophobia – fear of the color purple
Pteronophobia – fear of being tickled by feathers
Pupaphobia – fear of puppets
Samhainophobia – fear of Halloween
Scriptophobia – fear of writing in public
Selenophobia – fear of the moon
Spacephobia – fear of outer space
Triskaidekaphobia – fear of the number 13
Venustraphobia – fear of beautiful women
Verbophobia – fear of words

Since you are reading this blog, you probably don’t have verbophobia, fear of words, or even hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, fear of long words. But if you have another phobia, there is help out there for you. A good way to start is by contacting the National Alliance on Mental Illness at the NAMI website.

And if you want to learn even more phobia names, there’s a huge list here.