Ophidiophobe

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An individual suffering from an intense fear of snakes exhibits anxiety and dread when facing these reptiles
2. A person harboring a phobia exhibits extreme aversion and anxiety towards snakes in any situation
3. Someone who experiences a strong fear and avoidance of snakes in various environments

Etymology: "Ophidiophobe" is built from two parts that come from ancient Greek. The first, "ophidio-", comes from "ophis", the Greek word for serpent or snake, and it appears in modern English as a combining form in technical vocabulary. The second, "-phobe", comes from "phobos", meaning fear, and in its English form it names a person who has the fear. Put together, the word means a person who fears snakes. The pattern is a deliberate one. Scientific and clinical writers in English have long built names for phobias by joining Greek roots, so a snake-fearing person is an "ophidiophobe" in the same way that someone afraid of spiders is an "arachnophobe." Because the word is a modern combination of classical parts, it was not used by the ancient Greeks, who had their own words for snakes and for fear but never combined them in this form.