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The word is used by Charles M. Schulz in a 1982 installment of his Peanuts comic strip, [51] and by Peter O'Donnell in his 1985 Modesty Blaise adventure novel Dead Man's Handle. Charlophobia – the fictional fear of any person named Charlotte or Charlie, mentioned in the comedic book A Duck is Watching Me: Strange and Unusual Phobias (2014 ...
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.
The word nightmare is derived from the Old English mare, a mythological demon or goblin who torments others with frightening dreams. The term has no connection with the Modern English word for a female horse. [5] The word nightmare is cognate with the Dutch term nachtmerrie and German Nachtmahr (dated).
Fierce economic competition is driving commercial mass media to rely extensively on scary stories and bad news in a competition that has been characterized as an emotional arms race. [13] Stories about crime, and especially violent crimes and crimes against children, figure prominently among newspaper headlines.
When witnessing fire or smoke (even if the fire poses no threat, such as a candle), suspecting a fire is nearby, or (in some cases) visualizing fires, pyrophobes exhibit typical psychological and physiological symptoms of fear and panic: acute stress, fast heartbeat, shortness of breath, tightness in chest, sweating, nausea, shaking or trembling, dry mouth, needing to go to the bathroom ...
This phenomenon is used to describe incidents where a familiar entity is encountered in a frightening, eerie, or taboo context. [2] [3] Ernst Jentsch set out the concept of the uncanny, later elaborated on by Sigmund Freud in his 1919 essay "Das Unheimliche", which explores the eeriness of dolls and waxworks. [4]
From titular antagonists ("Carrie," "Dracula," "It") to cryptic clues ("Saw," "Jaws," "Slither"), horror captures the art of the tiny title like no other genre.
Writers use scare quotes for a variety of reasons. They can imply doubt or ambiguity in words or ideas within the marks, [18] or even outright contempt. [19] They can indicate that a writer is purposely misusing a word or phrase [20] or that the writer is unpersuaded by the text in quotes, [21] and they can help the writer deny responsibility for the quote. [19]