coulrophobia
Coulrophobie
The fear of clownsThe fear of clowns.
/kəʊl.ɹəˈfəʊ.bi.ə/
» I have coulrophobia.
У меня страх клоунов. — corvard
У меня коулрофобия. — sharptoothed
У мене коулрофобія. — deniko
marcelostockle · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
1 senses(uncountable)The fear of clowns.
Coulrophobie
Examples
2 sentencesTranslations
3 languagesDeutsch
By meaning 1
fear of clowns:
Origin
Coined in the late 1980s or 1990s, of unknown origin, appearing first, without further expCoined in the late 1980s or 1990s, of unknown origin, appearing first, without further explanation, in lists of phobias circulating on the Internet. First use appears c. 1997 according to the OED. According to a widespread theory, the term is based on Ancient Greek κωλοβαθριστής (kōlobathristḗs, “one who goes on stilts”), allegedly chosen for lack of an obvious Ancient Greek equivalent of “clown”, + -phobia (“fear of”). This theory fails to explain the alteration of colo- to coulro-.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Synonyms
2 synonymsWord family
1 related wordsRelatedcoulrophilia
Lessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable