Earth & SkyGreek → English
Phobos
/ˈfoʊbɒs/noun
The larger and inner of the two moons of Mars.
The Greek roots
φόβος
phóbos
fear, panic, rout
Literally: “panic”
Follow a root:φόβος12 words
The story of the word
Asaph Hall found both Martian moons in August 1877, and a science master at Eton, Henry Madan, suggested the names from the Iliad, where Ares has Fear and Dread harness his horses. Homer's φόβος is not private anxiety but the rout, the moment an army breaks and runs. Phobos circles Mars faster than Mars turns, so from the surface it rises in the west, and it is drifting inward and will eventually come apart.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → astronomical naming → English
- First recorded
- 1877
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
phobiahydrophobiaagoraphobiaxenophobia
In a sentence
Phobos crosses the Martian sky twice in a single Martian day.