The 'C' Word

Moneygami

WOULD you have known that Chrometophobia actually referred to the fear of money ? Quite frankly, I thought it was the fear of chrome. I don't know of anyone in my world who feared cash cuz most would be happy to be printing money in their backyards so they had greedy amount of paper money to sleep on or to keep a bonfire going with it! Okay, I'm exaggerating but I don't see how one can be persistently fearful of money to such distressing point that there was a need to coin a word for it. So I was somewhat perplexed when I first heard of the C word during a recent Business Writing workshop by Rajen Devadason (I realised I knew more about car engines than economics at the workshop). Consequently, that got me Googling for other uncommon phobias (or at least in my mind), and I ended up with the list below! To learn about more phobias, go to http://www.fearofstuff.com/ 

1) Arachibutyrophobia : You wouldn't have guessed it too, but this is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth ! What are the odds, right?

2) Chinaphobia : It's easy to presume that this refers to the fear of Chinese or the Chinese culture just like how Japanophobia and Dutchophobia indicate the fear of Japan (or anything Japanese) and the Dutch culture respectively. Chinaphobia is actually the fear of goose or geese :)

3) Geniophobia : The irrational fear of chins. It's not something to laugh about of course, but being afraid of chins and jaws (I'm supposing it's of human jaws. I am greatly afraid of jaws of certain animals) is just mind-boggling.

4) Pterenophobia : The fear of being tackled by feathers. Some people chronically fear this.

5) Papaphobia : I made up this word in my head long before I actually saw it on the website above, and in my head, it was the fear of dad. Well, it's taken up for the fear of the Pope.

6) Paraskavedekatriaphobia : Don't bother with it. It's easier said in English - the fear of Friday the 13th. But it's not half as bad as Christougenniatiko Dentophobia, which is the fear of Christmas Tree. When I read these terms, it was possible that I momentarily suffered from  Hellenologophobia or the fear of Greek terms or complex scientific terminology.

7) Tremophobia : The fear of trembling is probably faced by those who've experienced earthquakes or tremors, but to find both fear and tremble in one phrase is irony in itself. However, the grand irony is in Phobophobia I must say cuz it's the fear of phobias!

8) Quranophobia : No, it's not the fear of the holy Quran. It's actually the fear of heaven. Fearing hell is Hadeophobia.

9) Aurophobia : I don't wear or like wearing gold, but I know that it is not wise to have the fear of gold as it is the easiest hard commodity to grow.

10) Bolshephobia : Fear of Bolsheviks, and I can see why.

I had fun going through the list of fears, and while at it, I noted that I have at least 25 of the phobias from the list, but thankfully Maliaphobia (fear of wigs) isn't one of them, and I can now give a somewhat clinical explanation as to why I dislike swimming or being in the sea and lakes cuz I clearly have Ictyhyophobia, which is the great fear of fishes. I wouldn't mind if more people had Kleptophobia (fear of stealing) if it's going to make the world a better place - I hear people in Saudi suffer from this fear since the punishment for stealing is to cut off the right hand, sometimes even for stealing basic neccesities like food :(

By the way, the fear of chrome comes under Metallophobia, which is the fear of metals.