Ailurophobia

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˌaɪljʊəɹəˈfəʊbɪ.ə/

Definitions

1. A condition marked by an intense and irrational fear of cats, causing significant emotional distress and avoidance of situations where cats are present
2. This phenomenon entails a persistent and abnormal fear of felines, leading to anxiety and behavioral changes when encountering these animals
3. A psychological disorder characterized by an overwhelming and irrational fear of cats, resulting in extreme anxiety and the avoidance of any cat-related situations

Etymology: Ailurophobia is a coinage built from two Greek elements, and its first recorded use dates to 1905. The first part, "ailouros", meant "cat" in ancient Greek, and the second, "phobos", meant "fear" or "dread", the root behind English words like "phobia" itself. Greek speakers had no word combining the two, so the term was assembled from classical parts in the early twentieth century, the way many scientific and clinical terms were. The pattern is the same as many other modern fear words. English writers took Greek building blocks and attached them to a new object of dread, producing names for specific anxieties such as "arachnophobia" for spiders. Because the word is a deliberate construction rather than an ancient inheritance, its meaning is transparent: "ailouros" plus "phobos" yields fear of cats, with no shift in sense along the way.

Synonyms: cat phobia, fear of cats