phobiaphobia

English

Etymology

phobia +‎ -phobia

Noun

phobiaphobia (uncountable)

1. The fear of fear itself.
   • Bill L. Little, Self-Destruction Made Easy (page 72)

     A lot of fears have already been named for us; such as acrophobia (fear of high places), agoraphobia (fear of open places), zoophobia (fear of animals), phobiaphobia (fear of fear), etc. You need not, however, be limited to those already named and catalogued.

   • 2012, Martin Luther King Jr., A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings, page 116:

     When unchecked, fear spawns a whole brood of phobias—fear of water, high places, closed rooms, darkness, loneliness, among others—and such an accumulation culminates in phobiaphobia or the fear of fear itself.

   • 2017, Dennis Hayes, Beyond McDonaldization: Visions of Higher Education, page 53:

     The arguments are familiar: the academy is for […] eliminating racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, transphobia, phobiaphobia, and prejudice in whatever form today's fevered imaginariums of offence can conjure.

Synonyms

• phobophobia