English

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Etymology

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From spider +‎ -phobia.

Noun

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spiderphobia (uncountable)

  1. Synonym of arachnophobia
    • 1859, Elbridge Gerry Paige, New Patent Sermons, Machine Poetry, N. Y.: Frederic A. Brady, page 274:
      There are many kinds of spiders, ladies and gentlemen, besides the two that crawled up King Richard’s arm. There is the little grey spider, the larger brown spider, the still bigger yellow spider, and the monstrous black spider—the last named of which sometimes grows to the size of a young frying-pan; and, should it happen to bite you, you die of spiderphobia in less than two shakes of a lobster’s liver.
    • 1917, Outing, page 217, column 1:
      Barney cautioned him not to speak of spiders in my presence because I was afflicted with a strange fear, sort of a spiderphobia, that made it a dangerous subject for me to hear discussed.
    • 1959, Science Digest, page 81, column 2:
      He was a victim of arachnephobia[sic] or spiderphobia.
    • 1993, David Evans, A Cat in the Tulips, Millivres Books, →ISBN, page 51:
      There must be a word for people who had spiderphobia although Norman couldn’t in his wildest imaginings even bring himself to even look[sic] at the word spider.
    • 1999, Caeia March, Spinsters’ Rock, The Women’s Press, →ISBN, page 170:
      Esther tried for years to rid Nell of her spiderphobia.
    • 1999, Fred Moody, The Visionary Position: The Inside Story of the Digital Dreamers Who Are Making Virtual Reality a Reality, Times Books, →ISBN, page 5:
      “The experiment is to see if you can use VR as a treatment. So, to some extent, we’re just basically trying to treat her for spiderphobia, and at the same time we’re trying to learn from her experience whether this is an effective medium.”