Phobias – Interesting Literature

Unusual words about literature every book-lover needs to know

Previously we’ve considered some essential words book-lovers should know; one of the book-words we coined, bibliosmia, has even found its way into other corners of the internet, albeit in a small way. (See also this Amazon discussion about the word and the phenomenon it describes; it also appears to have become a semi-popular hashtag on picture-sharing sites.) Since we came up with ‘bibliosmia’, anyway, we’ve uncovered lots of other weird and wonderful words relating to writing, reading, and other book-related activities and experiences. Here are ten of our favourites.

Alogotransiphobia denotes the fear of being caught on public transport with nothing to read.

25 rare phobias – how many of these do you suffer from?

It’s well-known that a fear of spiders is ‘arachnophobia’, but what’s a fear of wasps? What’s the name for a fear of remaining single forever? We’ve been scouring the reference books for some less well-known phobias and have compiled the definitive list. Although some of the following phobias are pretty weird, we like to think that many of the phenomena they describe are quite common.

Koinoniphobia is a fear of being in a room full of people.

Deipnophobia is the dread of dinner-parties.

Scopophobia is a fear of being stared at.

Medectophobia is the fear that one’s penis is visible through one’s clothes.

Automysophobia is a fear of being dirty.

10 Weird Literary Phobias and Manias for Book-Lovers

25 Weird and Interesting Little-Known Phobias