あなたは何恐怖症？

*太字の単語やフレーズは、今週のボキャブラリーです。この記事の最後に詳しい説明を載せています。

In last week, I wrote about “life’s little pleasures” or the little things in life that make you smile. This week, I am going to ask you something very different and that is: What phobias, if any, do you have? Phobias are things that give you GREAT FEAR. I ask this question since last weekend, I read a news story about some uncommon phobias that people have been diagnosed with. Some are things I had heard of but many others phobias were very surprising to me. For example if someone has “lutraphobia”, they have a fear of other people. While some people suffer from “alektorophobia”, which is a fear of chickens. And there are even some people who suffer from “pentheraphobia”, which is a fear of mother-in-laws.

The story estimates that perhaps more than 10 million people in England suffer from at least one kind of phobia. Here are just a FEW of phobias that people have been diagnosed with.

Agyrophobia - streets or crossing the street

Anuptaphobia - staying single

Blennophobia - slime

Bogyphobia - the bogeyman (monsters)

Caligynephobia - beautiful women

Cometophobia - comets

Decidophobia - making decisions

Ephebiphobia - teenagers

Epistemophobia - knowledge

Euphobia - hearing good news

Hellenologophobia - difficult scientific words

Hypegiaphobia - responsibility

Linonophobia - string

Melanophobia - the color black

Nephophobia - clouds

Octophobia - the figure 8

Ouranophobia - heaven

Philosophobia - philosophy

Phronemophobia - thinking

Pupaphobia - puppets

Sciaphobia - shadows

Scriptophobia - writing in public

Symbolophobia - symbology

Tremophobia - trembling or shaking

Zoophobia - animals


I have a type of “entomophobia” which is a fear of insects. But my fear is not of ALL insects, just one. I have a serious fear of COCKROACHES. I never saw my first cockroach until I was 27. I was living in Tokyo and one day, I went to the kitchen to get a fork and when I opened the kitchen drawer, there was a VERY large and ugly cockroach looking back at me. I remember being SO afraid I didn’t know what to do. I actually went outside to think. I ultimately went back inside wearing a pair of gloves and a can of bug spray. After spraying EVERYTHING in my kitchen, I threw away all of my food in my cupboard and CLEANED EVERYTHING with hot soapy water and bleach. I didn’t sleep very well for a long time after that...I don’t know exactly why I am so afraid of cockroaches, but without a doubt, I AM!

How about you? Do you have any great fears and if so, how do you deal with them?

I will look forward to speaking to you about them when we speak this week.

Be well and healthy,

Keith//

This week’s vocabulary:

phobia: 名詞病的恐怖［嫌悪］；Ｕ恐怖症

diagnose: 動詞•他動詞〈病気を〉（…であると）診断する｟as ...｠；〈人を〉（…と）診断する｟as, with ...｠

mother-in-law: 義母, しゅうとめ.

estimate: 動詞 他動詞 ［III名　詞］…を見積もる；［III名　詞•副　詞/that節/wh-節/V名　詞to be名　詞］…を（…であると）見積もる｟at ...｠；〈…であると〉概算する. ▼thatは省略可

suffer: 動詞•自動詞［I（副　詞）］（…に）苦しむ, 悩む｟from, for, under ...｠

slime: 名詞•Ｕ　1 ねば土, 軟泥；ヘドロ.

bogymen: 名詞（複-men）ブーギーマン（怪奇な人）：悪い子供をさらっていく小鬼.

comets: 名詞〘天文・星〙彗星（すいせい）, ほうき星.

scientific words: 形容詞 （▼比較変化なし）｟限定｠科学（上）の；自然科学（上）の；理科の

responsibility: 名詞（複 -ties）（…に対する）責任, 責務, 義務｟for, to, of ..., of doing｠

puppet: 名詞 操り人形.

symbology: 名詞•Ｕ 1 象徴［表象］学；記号論. 2 象徴［記号, 符号］の使用.

without a doubt: ｟形式的｠疑いもなく, 確かに.