English edit

Etymology edit

eco- +‎ -phobia, from Ancient Greek: οἶκος (oîkos, house) and φόβος (phóbos, fear).

Noun edit

ecophobia (uncountable)

  1. Fear of one’s home.
    Synonyms: œcophobia, oecophobia, oikophobia (archaic, rare)
    • 1995, International Reading Association, Journal of Reading:
      Many of our teenage hippies are in the streets today because they suffer from ecophobia.
  2. A feeling of powerlessness to prevent cataclysmic environmental change, apocalypse, etc.
    • 1990, George F Will, Suddenly: The American Idea Abroad and at Home:
      No wonder the mood of the moment is ecophobia, the fear that the planet is increasingly inhospitable.