Logophile – Xenophobia
Where is xenophobia normally directed?
Xenophobia, built on two Greek roots that trace back over 2,000 years, is yet a very young word dating back just 100 years or so. We all know that phobia is fear. All manner of things are deemed to be the objects of phobia (fear) today. I guess if you have logo-phobia you won’t be reading these logo-phile posts.
The key to the meaning of xenophobia is the ‘xeno’ prefix. This Greek root means foreigner or stranger. So xenophobia identifies an unreasonable fear of foreigners, strangers or people who are different.
Xenophobia is likely to be higher in communities where cultural homogeneity is strong. In multi-cultural societies, filled with diverse people, you would expect unreasonable fear of strangers to be reduced.
Another contributor to xenophobia is the loss of the notion of ‘one blood’. Biblical creation teaches that all people came from the same original family stock. We are all ‘one blood’. We are all related, even if as distant relatives. So we can be confident that people share much in common and don’t need to be feared and distrusted unreasonably.
Tags: greek roots, logophile, meanings, unreasonable fear, Vocabulary, words, xenophobia
