Phobia

[foh-bee-uh] /ˈfoʊ bi ə/

noun
1.
a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it.
1.
a combining form meaning “fear,” occurring in loanwords from Greek (hydrophobia); on this model, used in the names of mental disorders that have the general sense “dread of, aversion toward” that specified by the initial element:
agoraphobia.
/ˈfəʊbɪə/
noun
1.
(psychiatry) an abnormal intense and irrational fear of a given situation, organism, or object
combining form
1.
indicating an extreme abnormal fear of or aversion to: acrophobia, claustrophobia
n.

“irrational fear, horror, aversion,” 1786, perhaps on model of similar use in French, abstracted from compounds in -phobia, from Greek -phobia, from phobos “fear, panic fear, terror, outward show of fear; object of fear or terror,” originally “flight” (still the only sense in Homer), but it became the common word for “fear” via the notion of “panic, fright” (cf. phobein “put to flight, frighten”), from PIE root *bhegw- “to run” (cf. Lithuanian begu “to flee;” Old Church Slavonic begu “flight,” bezati “to flee, run;” Old Norse bekkr “a stream”). Psychological sense attested by 1895.

word-forming element meaning “excessive or irrational fear of,” from Latin -phobia and directly from Greek -phobia “panic fear of,” from phobos “fear” (see phobia). In widespread popular use with native words from c.1800. Related: -phobic.

phobia pho·bi·a (fō’bē-ə)
n.

-phobia suff.
An intense, abnormal, or illogical fear of a specified thing: claustrophobia.
phobia [(foh-bee-uh)]

An extreme and often unreasonable fear of some object, concept, situation, or person.