Grandiloquent Word of the Day: Linonophobia (lin•ON•oh•FOW•bee•ya) Noun: -The fear of string. Individuals coping with linonophobia are impacted by an acute fear of strings. This phobia can be associated with a fear of being restrained or restricted. Sufferers usually have no problems wearing clothes, but prefer shoes without laces. From: Latin "linum" meaning "flax" or "linen" + "phobia" from Greek "phobia", from "phobos" "fear, panic fear, terror, outward show of fear; object of fear or terror," originally "flight", but it became the common word for "fear" via the notion of "panic, fright" (cf. phobein "put to flight, frighten"), from PIE root *bhegw- "to run" (cf. Lithuanian begu "to flee;" Old Church Slavonic begu "flight," bezati "to flee, run;" Old Norse bekkr "a stream"). Psychological sense attested by 1895. Related - Linen: "cloth from woven flax," early 14c.; earlier as an adjective, "made of flax" (c.1200), from Old English linin (adj.) "made of flax," from lin "flax, linen thread, cloth," from West Germanic *linam (cf. Old Saxon, Old Norse, Old High German lin "flax, linen," German Leinen "linen," Gothic lein "linen cloth"), probably an early borrowing from Latin linum "flax, linen," which, along with Greek linon is from a non-IE language. Used in a sentence: "The 60s were a most horrific and terrifying era for the linonophobiacs, because it was the pinnacle of the macrame craft fad."
Posted on: Fri, 04 Oct 2013 05:07:51 +0000