See coulrophobia on Wiktionary
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"etymology_text": "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 supposedly based on Ancient Greek κωλοβαθριστής (kōlobathristḗs, “one who goes on stilts”) (from κωλόβαθρον (kōlóbathron, “stilt”), from κῶλον (kôlon, “limb”) + βάθρον (báthron, “something to stand on”), allegedly chosen for lack of an obvious Ancient Greek equivalent of \"clown\", or with some supposed sense of \"stilt-walker\" (because earlier clowns used to walk on stilts in their performances), + -phobia (“fear of”) suffix. If true, the literal meaning of coulrophobia would be either \"fear of limbs\" or \"fear of stilt-walkers\". This theory fails to explain the substitution of ou for o and of lro for lo.",
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"ref": "1999 February, “February: This month's marvels, musts, and misses”, in Condé Nast Traveler, volume 34, page 103:",
"text": "[…] to develop coulrophobia. On the seventh, clowns from around the world […] congregate at London's Holy Trinity Church for the annual Grimaldi Memorial Service.",
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"ref": "2003, Andy Field, Graham Hole, How to Design and Report Experiments, page 257:",
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"roman": "xiǎochǒu kǒngjùzhèng",
"sense": "fear of clowns",
"word": "小丑恐惧症"
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"roman": "piero kyōfushō",
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"word": "광대공포증"
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"ref": "2003, Andy Field, Graham Hole, How to Design and Report Experiments, page 257:",
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"code": "cmn",
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"roman": "xiǎochǒu kǒngjùzhèng",
"sense": "fear of clowns",
"word": "小丑恐惧症"
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"word": "Coulrophobie"
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"roman": "piero kyōfushō",
"sense": "fear of clowns",
"word": "ピエロ恐怖症"
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"alt": "どうけきょうふしょう",
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"lang": "Japanese",
"roman": "dōkekyōfushō",
"sense": "fear of clowns",
"word": "道化恐怖症"
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"code": "ko",
"lang": "Korean",
"roman": "gwangdaegongpojeung",
"sense": "fear of clowns",
"word": "광대공포증"
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"lang": "Vietnamese",
"sense": "fear of clowns",
"word": "hội chứng sợ chú hề"
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"sense": "fear of clowns",
"word": "ám ảnh sợ hãi chú hề"
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"word": "coulrophobia"
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Download raw JSONL data for coulrophobia meaning in All languages combined (6.1kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
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