Pyrophobic

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Experiencing an intense, irrational dread of fire and flames that goes beyond ordinary caution
2. Afflicted with a persistent and extreme fear of fire, often causing avoidance of anything that burns
3. Marked by an abnormal terror of fire, especially when that fear is out of proportion to any real danger

Etymology: Pyrophobic is built from two Greek elements: "pyr", meaning fire, and "phobos", meaning fear or dread, joined to the English adjective-forming suffix "-ic". The first element is the same one that gives English words like pyre, the heap of wood on which a body was burned, and pyrotechnics, the art of fireworks. The "-phobia" ending is a late modern formation. Greek "phobos" was used in ancient times for fear and terror, and English borrowed it into many compounds, but the pattern of attaching it to a Greek root to name an irrational fear is a coinage of the modern clinical and scientific vocabulary. Terms of this kind were created deliberately to label specific fears, which is why so many phobia words follow the same shape. Used as a noun, the word names a person who has such a fear. Its meaning is strictly medical-psychological in use: the fear is persistent, out of proportion, and leads the sufferer to avoid anything that burns.