Germanophobe

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Someone who harbors an intense dislike or fear of Germany, its people, or German culture
2. A person holding strong prejudice against Germans and everything associated with their nation
3. One who is hostile toward the German nation and its people, often out of deep-seated distrust

Etymology: Germanophobe is a plain formation, built from the English adjective-forming stem "German" joined by a connecting "-o-" to the Greek-derived element "-phobe," meaning one who fears or hates something. The "-phobe" element comes from Greek "phobos," fear, and is the same root that gives us "xenophobe" and "Anglophobe." Words in this pattern were coined as needed to name a person who holds a strong dislike of a particular nation or people, so the term simply reads as "German-hater." The "-o-" joint is the detail worth noticing. Greek compounds usually link their parts with a vowel, and English borrowed that habit when it adopted classical-style words, so "German" plus "phobe" needs the "o" to sit comfortably. The same pattern appears in many coinages where a national name is paired with a Greek element.

Synonyms: Teutophobe