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Aug 1, 2018
This week’s theme
Words that appear to be coined by flipping the letter p

This week’s words
binnacle
bollard
bathophobia
baragnosis
boodle

bathophobia
Photo: D’Arcy Norman/Wikimedia
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

bathophobia

PRONUNCIATION:
(bath-uh-FO-bee-uh)

MEANING:
noun: A fear of depths or of falling from a height.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek bathos (depth) + -phobia (fear). Earliest documented use: 1903. A related term is acrophobia. The p-headed word is pathophobia (an irrational fear of disease).

USAGE:
“The self-accusing mind’s bottomless well, bathophobia. Falling and falling and falling.”
Tom LeClair; Well-Founded Fear; Olin Frederick; 2000.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well-warmed, and well-fed. -Herman Melville, novelist and poet (1 Aug 1819-1891)

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