Arachnophobia

The story of the word

ἀράχνη is the ordinary Greek word for a spider, and Ovid tells the story of Arachne, the Lydian weaver who out-wove Athena and was turned into one for winning; how much of that tale is older than Ovid is unclear. The clinical term is a twentieth-century formation and names one of the commonest specific phobias, which also happens to be among the most treatable, sometimes in a single long session of graded exposure. The arachnoid membrane wrapped around the brain carries the same root, named for its fine web of strands.

How it travelled

Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English

First recorded

20th century