Cosmophobia

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An intense fear of the universe's vastness and unknowns develops into a psychological condition marked by anxiety about cosmic phenomena and space
2. This condition encompasses an irrational dread or apprehension related to the enormity of space and celestial bodies
3. An overwhelming anxiety caused by contemplating the immense and mysterious cosmos

Etymology: "Cosmophobia" is a plain compound built from two Greek elements. The first, "kosmos," meant "order" or "world" and, in its later philosophical use, the ordered universe as a whole. The second, "phobos," meant "fear" or "dread," and it gives English the suffix "-phobia" used for any intense, irrational fear. Joined together, the pieces describe a fear of the universe itself. The word is a modern formation rather than an ancient one. Greek had no term with this exact sense, so English speakers built it from existing classical material, following the same pattern as words like "claustrophobia" and "agoraphobia." It is a technical coinage, and its meaning follows directly from the parts it was assembled from.

Synonyms: fear of the universe, cosmic fear

Antonyms: cosmophilia