Canophobia

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An irrational and intense fear of dogs that goes well beyond ordinary caution around them
2. A persistent, excessive dread of canines that can cause someone to avoid dogs entirely
3. The specific phobia characterized by an overwhelming and unreasonable terror of dogs

Etymology: Canophobia is a fear of dogs, and its roots are plain: "cano-" is a combining form from Greek "kyon" (dog), and "-phobia" comes from Greek "phobos" (fear). The word is a modern compound built from these classical pieces rather than an ancient coinage, so no Greek or Roman speaker ever used it. Its most notable feature is that it is a doublet of "cynophobia," meaning that both words come from the same Greek root but reached their forms by different routes. "Cyno-" keeps the Greek spelling closer to the original, while "cano-" reflects a Latinized spelling of the same stem. The two terms have the same meaning and were formed the same way, so they are near-identical alternatives in the vocabulary of phobias.

Synonyms: cynophobia