Mind & EmotionGreek → English
Acrophobia
/ˌækrəˈfoʊbiə/noun
An intense fear of heights that goes beyond ordinary caution.
The Greek roots
ἄκρον
ákron
summit, topmost point
φόβος
phóbos
fear, flight
Literally: “dread of high points”
The story of the word
ἄκρον is the tip of anything: a mountain, a headland, a finger. The Italian physician Andrea Verga described and named the condition in 1887, writing partly from the inside, since he suffered from it. The same root raises the acropolis above its city and puts the acrobat on the high wire.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 1887
Same family
acropolisacrobatacronymacrosticphobia
In a sentence
His acrophobia made the glass floor of the tower a short visit.
She has no acrophobia at altitude in a plane, only on a ladder.