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Autophobia is closely related to monophobia, isolophobia, and eremophobia, however, it varies slightly in definition. According to the Merriam-Webster Medical Dictionary, eremophobia is a morbid fear of being isolated. [21] In contrast, The Practitioner's Medical Dictionary defines autophobia as a morbid fear of solitude or one's self. [1]
The term is a piece of computer humor entered into the 1981 The Devil's DP Dictionary. [47] Anatidaephobia – the fictional fear that one is being watched by a duck. The word comes from the name of the family Anatidae, and was used in Gary Larson's The Far Side. [48] Anoraknophobia – a portmanteau of "anorak" and "arachnophobia".
Fear is an unpleasant emotion that arises in response to perceived dangers or threats.Fear causes physiological and psychological changes. It may produce behavioral reactions such as mounting an aggressive response or fleeing the threat, commonly known as the fight-or-flight response.
The word phobia may also refer to conditions other than true phobias. For example, the term hydrophobia is an old name for rabies , since an aversion to water is one of that disease's symptoms. A specific phobia to water is called aquaphobia instead.
Acrophobia, also known as hypsophobia, is an extreme or irrational fear or phobia of heights, especially when one is not particularly high up. It belongs to a category of specific phobias, called space and motion discomfort, that share similar causes and options for treatment.
Social anxiety disorder (SAD), also known as social phobia, is an anxiety disorder characterized by sentiments of fear and anxiety in social situations, causing considerable distress and impairing ability to function in at least some aspects of daily life.
Artistic depiction of a child afraid of the dark and frightened by their shadow. (Linocut by the artist Ethel Spowers (1927).) Fear of the dark is a common fear or phobia among toddlers, children and, to a varying degree, adults. A fear of the dark does not always concern darkness itself; it can also be a fear of possible or imagined dangers ...
According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word coward came into English from the Old French word coart (modern French couard), which is a combination of the word for "tail" (Modern French queue, Latin cauda) and an agent noun suffix.