ecophobia

English

Alternative forms

• œcophobia (archaic, rare)

Etymology

eco- + -phobia, from Ancient Greek: οἶκος (oikos, “house”) and φόβος (phobos, “fear”).

Noun

ecophobia (uncountable)

1. Fear of one’s home.
   • 1995, International Reading Association, Journal of Reading:

     Many of our teenage hippies are in the streets today because they suffer from ecophobia.

2. A feeling of powerlessness to prevent cataclysmic environmental change, apocalypse, etc.
   • 1990, George F Will, Suddenly: The American Idea Abroad and at Home:

     No wonder the mood of the moment is ecophobia, the fear that the planet is increasingly inhospitable.