This week's theme
Words made with combining forms

This week's words
monology
logomachy
phylogeny
scotophobia
epigraphy

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

For 1: (sko-tuh-FOH-bee-uh)
For 2: (ska-tuh-FOH-bee-uh)

MEANING:

noun:
1. Fear of the dark.
2. Fear or hatred of Scottish people or culture.

ETYMOLOGY:

For 1: From Greek scoto- (darkness) + -phobia (hatred, fear). The opposite is photophobia and a synonym is nyctophobia. Earliest documented use: 1844.
For 2: From Scoto- (Scottish) + -phobia (hatred, fear). Earliest documented use: 1828.

USAGE:

"In the grip of scotophobia -- those palpitations, that slurry speech, the way she shook when it grew dark."
Matthew Emmens; Zenobia: The Curious Book of Business; Berrett-Koehler; 2008.

"Alan Riach, professor of Scottish literature at the University of Glasgow, said he detected a trace of Scotophobia in Paxman's views."
Jeremy Paxman Ridicules Robert Burns as King of Doggerel; The Times (London, UK); Aug 15, 2008.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: