How did the terms homophobe and xenophobe come about?

Question

Doesn't the 'phobe' part in a word refer to being scared or afraid of something?

But these two words tend to get used when someone shows a distaste or a disliking to someone, not a fear.

And before anyone tries to be a smartarse, i'm not either of them....

Answer 1

Phobia, n:

1: A persistent, abnormal, and irritional fear of a specific thing or situation that compels one to avoid it, despite the awareness and reassurance that it is not dangerous.

2: A strong fear, dislike, or aversion.

(Most, if not all psychoanalysts would probably rationalize that dislike, distaste, and distrust is just an offshoot of some deeper fear.)

Answer 2

Yes the -phobe ending comes from phobia which means a fear, aversion or hatred (especially irrational) of something. I think it is generally used more lightly now, particularly in the cases you have given, to mean a bigoted dislike.

However, the same is true of the opposite -phile ending, meaning "lover of". I might be a bibliophile, but an anglophile? I like them, but I wouldn't actually say I love them all....

Answer 3

You're right about the base of phobe but it's in common usage as "disgusted by" or "strongly averse to." Xeno is meant to be from any species but you're own this has alot of common usage as anything different from a specific belief or sect the person falls into. Homophobe relates to homosexuality in most cases.

Answer 4

Homophobia is the fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals. It can also mean hatred, hostility, or disapproval of homosexual people, sexual behavior, or cultures, and is generally used to insinuate bigotry. The term homophobic means "prejudiced against homosexual people," and a person who is homophobic is a homophobe.

The word homophobic, when used to label someone as prejudiced against homosexual people, can be a pejorative term, and the identification of a group or person as homophobic is nearly always contested.



Xenophobia is an irrational fear and contempt of foreigners. It comes from the Greek words ξένος (xenos), meaning "foreigner," "stranger," and φόβος (phobos), meaning "fear." The term is typically used to describe fear or dislike of foreigners or in general of people different from one's self.

Answer 5

No, the word 'phobia' is about fear... like "arachnophobia" or "claustrophobia".

People just muddle the definitions.

From my sources:

"Homophobia (from Greek homos, same and fobos, fear) literally means "fear of the same," however the term "homo" as a reference to homosexuals was used in the creation of the word. There are several different interpretations. The two main varieties of this phobic attitude are: # Prejudice against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people."

"Xenophobia denotes a phobic attitude towards strangers or of the unknown and comes from the Greek words ξένος (xenos), meaning "foreigner", "stranger", and φόβος (phobos), meaning "fear".The term is typically used to describe fear or dislike of foreigners, but racism in general is sometimes described as a form of xenophobia. In science fiction, it has come to mean 'fear of extraterrestrial things."

Looks like both words are of Greek origin.

Hope this helps!

Answer 6

Most phobia's are based either from the greek language, or from latin

Homophobe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homophobe

Xenophobe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenophobe

I agree with you on the dislike/distate thing, but in general people who are bigotted, tend to be uneducated and usually fearful of whatever they dislike.

Hope this helps