A.Word.A.Day --mysophobia

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May 13, 2011

This week's theme
There is a word for it

This week's words
anomia
poetaster
subitize
philtrum
mysophobia

Cinders, the mysophobic piglet

Photo: Jonathan Pow
Ross Parry Agency

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

mysophobia

PRONUNCIATION:

(my-suh-FOH-bee-uh)

MEANING:

noun: An irrational fear of dirt.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin myso-, from Greek mysos (filth) + -phobia (fear). Earliest documented use: 1879.

USAGE:

"Cinders the piglet overcame her fear of mud with the help of a pair of boots. The six-month-old saddleback suffers from mysophobia."
And This Little Piggy Wore Wellies All the Way Home; The Times (London, UK); Jun 11, 2008.

See more usage examples of mysophobia in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

The price of freedom of religion or of speech or of the press is that we must put up with, and even pay for, a good deal of rubbish. -Robert H. Jackson, US Supreme Court justice (1892-1954)

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