Algophobia

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An intense and persistent dread of experiencing or suffering physical pain
2. A pathological anxiety triggered by the prospect or presence of pain or discomfort
3. An excessive and unreasonable fear of pain that causes significant distress or avoidance

Etymology: Algophobia is a modern coinage built from two Ancient Greek pieces: "álgos", meaning pain, and the combining form "-phobia", from "phóbos", meaning fear or dread. Put together, the term names an abnormal fear of pain. The Greeks themselves never used it, since the word was assembled from classical parts in the modern period, when scientists and physicians routinely coined technical terms this way. The pattern behind it is the same one that produced many other clinical names ending in "-phobia", such as "claustrophobia" and "agoraphobia". The "-phobia" element was added to a Greek root to label a specific dread, and "álgos" supplies the object of that dread. Because the word is a deliberate compound rather than a term that evolved through speech, its meaning has stayed close to its parts: fear of pain itself, not of any particular source of it.

Synonyms: odynophobia