Thursday, January 31, 2008

The morbid fear of running out of reading material

Abibliophobia

WORD OF THE DAY: Abibliophobia (noun)

Pronunciation: [ê-bi-bli-ê-'fo-bee-yê]

Definition: The morbid fear of running out of reading material.

Usage: It is quite interesting that this word has popped up on the Web, the greatest source of reading material the world has ever known. Irony will never cease. Were there such a phobia, those subject to it would be abibliophobes , who would be abibliophobic. They would comport themselves abibliophobically , whatever that might mean.

Suggested Usage: Words on –phobia originally referred to psychotic conditions but now we have extracted a word, "phobia," from the suffix and add it wherever we please: "Wylie is such an abibliophobe that he never leaves the house without several magazines under his arm." In a world where this word could refer to a psychotic state, we could say, "What better refuge from abibliophobia than the library?"

-- Dr. Language, yourDictionary.com

1 comments:

derekstaff said...

And here I never thought I had a phobia. Of course, I knew I was a bibliomaniac, but I suppose the two often go together.