Mind & EmotionGreek → English
Misophonia
/ˌmɪsəˈfəʊnɪə/noun
A condition in which specific everyday sounds, typically chewing, breathing or tapping, provoke intense anger or distress.
The Greek roots
μῖσος
mîsos
hatred
φωνή
phōnḗ
sound, voice
Literally: “hatred of sound”
The story of the word
Pawel and Margaret Jastreboff, audiologists working on tinnitus, coined the name in 2001 to separate this from ordinary noise sensitivity. The trigger set is oddly specific and usually human: cutlery on teeth, a repeated sniff, a pen click. Same first root as misanthrope and misogyny, so the word literally files sound alongside humanity and women as things a person can be diagnosed with hating.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 2001
Same family
misanthropemisogynyphoneticssymphonymegaphone
In a sentence
Her misophonia makes shared offices unbearable during lunch.