coulrophobia
/kəʊl.ɹəˈfəʊ.bi.ə/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.30 in modern English
21
Scrabble Score
12
Letters
4
Syllables
10
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "[…] to develop coulrophobia. On the seventh, clowns from around the world […] congregate at London's Holy Trinity Church for the annual Grimaldi Memorial Service."
- "Clowns are no laughing matter to Sean "Puffy" Combs. The swaggering rap royal is widely reported to suffer from coulrophobia, an irrational fear of the red-nosed, versized-shoe-wearing, greasepainted circus buffoons."
- "⁵Unfortunately, the first time they attempted the study, the clown accidentally burst one of the balloons. The noise frightened the children and they associated that fear response with the clown. All 15 children are currently in therapy for coulrophobia!"
- "After you plug in your wish list and dating criteria, search results spit out matches; it’s like scanning a room of a thousand and pinpointing the ten who share your favorite author and chronic coulrophobia (fear of clowns)."
- "The ironic twist is that he recently admitted to a possible onset of coulrophobia."
Etymology
Coined in the late 1980s or 1990s, of unknown origin, appearing first, without further explanation, in lists of phobias circulating on the Internet. First use appears c. 1997 according to the OED. According to a widespread theory, the term is based on Ancient Greek κωλοβαθριστής (kōlobathristḗs, “one who goes on stilts”), allegedly chosen for lack of an obvious Ancient Greek equivalent of “clown”, + -phobia (“fear of”). This theory fails to explain the alteration of colo- to coulro-.