phobophilia

[Laurence Horn]

Not to be (safely) confused with philophobia, the fear of (or
antipathy toward) pleasure.  Then there's phobophobia, the target of
FDR's warning.  And the much more pleasant philophilia.

LH

At 3:28 PM -0500 2/14/10, Jonathan Lighter wrote:


>Not in OED.
>
>1907 Joseph Grasset _The Semi-Insane and the Semi-Responsible_ (trans. S. E.
>Jelliffe) (N.Y.: Funk & Wagnalls) 149: J. Roux includes _phobophilia_ with
>this, "a disease of those who can find sexual emotion only through fear."
>
>1979 in Francis H. Thompson _The Frustration of Politics_  (Rutherford,
>N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson U.P.) 117:  They suffered what one critic
>described as phobophilia: They were in love with their enemy.
>
>1982 Robin Morgan _Depth Perception_ (N.Y.: Anchor Books) 26: Phobophilia
>[title]. Do you smell smoke? / If you don't, it's not / because a tenement
>isn't burning- / down the street, in Derry, Beirut, or San Salvador.
>
>1992 Brenda Love _The Encyclopedia of Unusual Sex Practices_  (Ft. Lee,
>N.J.:Barricade Books) 211:
>The most common form of phobophilia is the type where a couple has sex in a
>public place, risking discovery (agoraphilia).
>
>1995 Penn Jillette & Teller _Phobophilia: The Love of Fear_ (film).
>
>18,000 RGs.
>
>
>"A love of fear or of a source of fear, often as a source of sexual
>stimulation."
>
>JL
>.--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org