xenophobia
Meaning
fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign.
Structure
Usage
the policy was criticized for appealing to xenophobia and nationalism.
living in a diverse city helped him overcome his childhood xenophobia.
economic insecurity can sometimes exacerbate xenophobia within a population.
Etymology
the term is a modern scholarly formation, directly assembled from ancient greek components. 'xenophobia' literally translates to 'fear of the stranger'. the greek 'xenos' could denote a guest, host, or foreigner, reflecting an ancient societal tension between hospitality and distrust towards outsiders. the suffix '-phobia', derived from 'phobos' (fear), systematically denotes irrational or excessive dread. the word entered english in the late 19th to early 20th century, primarily in sociological and psychological contexts, to formally label the aversion to people from other nations or cultures, encapsulating a primal social anxiety in classical terminology.
Analysis
- xeno: from greek 'xenos', meaning 'stranger, guest, foreign'. serves as the root conveying the object of the fear. - phobia: from greek 'phobos', meaning 'fear, panic, flight'. serves as the head morpheme indicating the condition or state.