coulrophobia

小丑恐惧症

发音

/kəʊl.ɹəˈfəʊ.bi.ə/

释义与例句

n.
  1. 1.

    The fear of clowns.

    小丑恐惧症

    不可数

    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.

词源

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-.

来源：wiktionary