Agoraphobes

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Anxious individuals who experience intense fear or avoidance of public spaces or situations where escape may be difficult
2. People suffering from an extreme fear of situations in open or crowded places, often leading to social isolation
3. Those who are plagued by overwhelming anxiety and fear concerning being in environments where panic or embarrassment may occur

Etymology: "Agoraphobes" is simply the plural of "agoraphobe," a person who fears crowds or open public spaces. The singular is built from "agora-," from Greek "agora," meaning a gathering place or marketplace, and "-phobe," from Greek "phobos," meaning fear, so the literal sense is someone afraid of the marketplace. The root is the same Greek word that gave us "agora" as the public assembly space at the heart of Athenian life, where citizens traded, debated and gathered. The fear it names is thus a fear of exactly the places where ancient Greeks went to be social and political. The plural simply counts several such people together.