Aerophobia

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A specific type of fear characterized by an overwhelming anxiety associated with flying or being in aircraft is known as a phobia
2. This condition reflects a strong, irrational apprehension about air travel or airborne vehicles that can significantly affect one's life
3. A psychological condition marked by an intense fear or anxiety related to flying and aircraft is recognized as a specific phobia

Etymology: Aerophobia is a compound built from two Greek elements, and its parts keep their original senses. The first, "aero-", comes from Ancient Greek "āḗr" (genitive "aéros"), meaning air or mist, the same stem that later gave English words such as aerial and aeronautics. The second, "-phobia", comes from Ancient Greek "phóbos", meaning fear or dread. Ancient Greek used "-phobía" to form words for specific fears, such as "claustrophobia"-style terms, but the suffix as a productive element in English is a much later invention. The word itself is a modern coinage. Scholars built it in New Latin, the scientific Latin used across Europe from the Renaissance onward, and English borrowed the suffix as "-phobia" along the way. So the Greeks had no word for fear of flying, and nobody in antiquity would have recognised "aerophobia" as a term. Its first recorded use in English dates from the modern era of aviation, when flight itself was new enough to frighten people.

Synonyms: fear of flying, aviophobia