Mind & EmotionGreek → English
Nyctophobia
/ˌnɪktəˈfoʊbiə/noun
An extreme, persistent fear of darkness or of the night.
The Greek roots
νύξ, νυκτός
nýx, nyktós
night
φόβος
phóbos
fear, panic
Literally: “fear of night”
The story of the word
Greek had νύξ for night and φόβος for fear but never bolted the two together; the compound is nineteenth-century clinical vocabulary. Doctors also tried scotophobia, from σκότος, darkness, and it lost. The same νύξ sits inside nyctalopia, the old medical name for night blindness.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → scientific coinage → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
nyctalopianoctilucentphobiahydrophobia
In a sentence
His nyctophobia eased once the hall light was left on all night.