Coulrophobia explained.
And the etymology:
A neologism, coined in the late 1980s or 1990s. Supposedly based on Ancient Greek κωλοβαθριστής (kōlobathristḗs, “one who goes on stilts”) (from κωλόβαθρον (kōlóbathron, “stilt”), from κῶλον (kôlon, “limb”) + βαίνω (baínō, “I go”), chosen for lack of an obvious Ancient Greek equivalent of "clown", combined with the -phobia (“fear of”) suffix.Cartoon via Jobsanger.
I saw the title and immediately thought it had something to do with Ann Coulter.
ReplyDeleteScares me anyway.
How on Earth does one choose to corrupt kolobathristes into coulro-? That's about as un-Greek as it gets.
ReplyDeleteHeh ;) Seems I'm not the only one:
Delete"Coulrophobia looks suspiciously like the sort of thing idle pseudo-intellectuals invent on the internet and which every smarty-pants takes up thereafter"