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Oct 9, 2017
This week’s themeThere’s a word for it This week’s words acarophobia exclosure untrack mise en abyme zetetic 
Squash Fear, Not Spiders!
Photo: Tone Killick
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu GargWhere there’s an itch, there’s a scratch. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Where there’s a word-gap, there’s a word coiner. Sure, you can use a phrase or a sentence to describe something, but why? Instead, why not come up with a single word for it! That’s how a language grows. Also, if you need this word, chances are someone else does too. So coin away, pollinate the world with your words, and see them bloom. What words have you coined? Share them below or email us at words@wordsmith.org. Don’t forget to google first to make sure someone else hasn’t thought of it earlier. Meanwhile enjoy this week’s words that might make you say: I didn’t know there was a word for it. acarophobia
PRONUNCIATION:
(ak-uh-ruh-FOE-bee-uh)
MEANING:
noun: 1. An extreme fear of small insects. 2. A delusion that one’s skin is infested with bugs. 3. A fear of itching. ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek acarus (mite) + -phobia (fear). Ultimately from the Indo-European
root sker- (to cut), which is also the source of words such as skirt, sharp,
scrape, screw, shard, shears, carnage, curt, carnivorous,
excoriate,
scrobiculate,
hardscrabble, and
incarnadine.
USAGE:
“She was proud of her illustration of thirty phobias; from acarophobia,
fear of itchy, crawly insects, to selachophobia, fear of sharks.” Rosalind Noonan; And Then She Was Gone; Kensington Books; 2014. See more usage examples of acarophobia in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Imagine there's no countries, / It isn't hard to do. / Nothing to kill or
die for, / And no religion, too. / Imagine all the people / Living life in
peace. -John Lennon, musician (9 Oct 1940-1980)
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