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I haven't been talking about Greek per se. I'm talking about English conventions. Tom Send a noteboard - 13/04/2024 05:13:33 PM

For as long as English has been discussing phobias and philias, the convention is that one takes a Greek root and adds the Anglicized -phile or -phobe for a person, or -philia or -phobia for the abstract. Typically the spelling conventions are Western, so acrophobia rather than akrophobia.

There are only a few recognized exceptions, such as aquaphobia, and that's because hydrophobia is an antiquated term for the disease rabies. Neologisms clearly don't follow that, such as transphobia or Islamophobia (though the latter technically is identical to the word in modern Greek; it just doesn't appear to have been used prior to the Early Modern period in Greek).

In this case, there is an existing word, eclipsophilia or ecleipsophilia (depending on spelling). For shadow it would be sciophilia, for darkness it would be scotophilia.

The point is not just that someone coined a term; it is that the person coined a term attempting to be clever but failing to note a proper term already existed and failing to take into consideration that there is already an established convention in the naming of these things.

Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.

ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius

Ummaka qinnassa nīk!

*MySmiley*
This message last edited by Tom on 13/04/2024 at 05:14:39 PM
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A gift for any umbraphiles among us - 06/04/2024 02:21:05 PM 503 Views
Umbraphile isn't a word - 08/04/2024 05:12:05 AM 325 Views
It is a word. It exists. - 08/04/2024 02:31:49 PM 328 Views
No it doesn't. Any retard can pretend a word exists but that doesn't make it so. *NM* - 08/04/2024 05:26:30 PM 167 Views
It does if enough people use it. That's how new words get created and enter a language. - 08/04/2024 05:32:46 PM 291 Views
Not exactly - 09/04/2024 01:30:30 AM 297 Views
Honey, the speakers of our language don't care about the "rules". - 09/04/2024 07:28:30 AM 325 Views
Bah - 09/04/2024 09:29:40 PM 340 Views
No, you're still wrong - 12/04/2024 12:56:49 AM 296 Views
I can see your recalcitrance won't be alleviated by logic or history. - 12/04/2024 11:49:44 AM 307 Views
You're the one ignoring logic and history - have some standards, man! - 12/04/2024 02:13:19 PM 313 Views
Can I have it both ways? - 12/04/2024 06:04:23 PM 310 Views
I've long been confused by the 'literally' debate. - 12/04/2024 09:32:29 PM 301 Views
I think perhaps it comes down to intent and knowledge. - 12/04/2024 10:42:09 PM 314 Views
I don't think being generous has anything to do with it - but my exposure to it may be different. - 13/04/2024 12:37:46 PM 309 Views
I haven't been talking about Greek per se. I'm talking about English conventions. - 13/04/2024 05:13:33 PM 300 Views
makes sense to me *NM* - 13/04/2024 11:25:03 PM 139 Views
I'm afraid I have to agree with Joe. - 12/04/2024 11:28:44 PM 272 Views
See my reply to Joe above, but regarding your specific example... - 13/04/2024 12:55:11 PM 307 Views
Yes you can have it both ways - 12/04/2024 11:16:55 PM 279 Views
One thing I won’t miss around here are the holier-than-thou pseudo-intellectuals. - 09/04/2024 08:11:57 PM 332 Views
You did *NM* - 10/04/2024 01:56:14 AM 158 Views

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