Talk:aphobia

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Also: Asexuals hating. 84.229.55.80 12:18, 24 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

 Done We have had the asexual-phobia sense for a while, though I don't believe it's attestable by our WT:CFI rules. Equinox 17:26, 24 February 2018 (UTC)[reply]
It is now. WordyAndNerdy (talk) 08:53, 26 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

RFV discussion: June–December 2023[edit]

The following information has failed Wiktionary's verification process (permalink).

Failure to be verified means that insufficient eligible citations of this usage have been found, and the entry therefore does not meet Wiktionary inclusion criteria at the present time. We have archived here the disputed information, the verification discussion, and any documentation gathered so far, pending further evidence.
Do not re-add this information to the article without also submitting proof that it meets Wiktionary's criteria for inclusion.


I cannot find uses of this term to refer to fearlessness; virtually every single use I see is in the asexual/aromantic-hating sense. The only use I've seen that even looks like it could mean this is this, but even of this, I'm not entirely sure. The etymology is sound; it could in theory refer to fearlessness, but I cannot find much evidence to suggest that it ever did in practice (interestingly, I did see one source defining it as a 'fear of nothing', a sense not in the entry). I'm having a hard time finding uses of this term at all pre-21st century; Google Books gives me results that say 'a phobia' (two words, and clearly talking about phobias), and hardly any instances of 'aphobia'. Adam9007 (talk) 06:19, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The article in your first link can be read in full here. The aphobia there does seem to refer to an absence of fear (extended by the author to mean a lack of conscientiousness; a tendency to abuse recklessly) with regard to surgery. (I've added the quote to the entry.)
I haven't been able to find any other quotes of aphobia meaning fearlessness (not even in early glossaries), which I honestly didn't expect, as ἀφοβία is rather well attested in Greek sources. 蒼鳥 fawk. tell me if i did anything wrong. 12:05, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]
It's occurred to me that the 'fear of nothing' referenced in the second link could have been intended to mean a lack of fear; however, that's just a glossary, so we can't rely on that. I've found a few uses of the term as part of a compound word, but these do not seem to refer to a lack of fear, but quite the opposite: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Adam9007 (talk) 19:14, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]
ah, the -a- is just excrescent in those (viz. acting as the connective schwa, from -o-, originally in Greco-Latinate compounds). No relation to a- (without). 蒼鳥 fawk. tell me if i did anything wrong. 21:09, 2 June 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I can find a few cites where this is mentioned as the Greek word for a battle trance of fearlessness, but it's italicized or introduced as "known as..." and then later explicitly "translated". Compare cisphobia (where only the gender-related sense but not the chemistry sense is attested) to transphobia (where the chemistry sense is attested) for another case where an expected sense is surprisingly not attested. - -sche (discuss) 19:19, 21 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Failed, has only one clear use, one cite borderline between use and mention, and one italicized mention of the Greek term. - -sche (discuss) 19:41, 22 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]