

Oct 9, 2017 This week’s theme

There’s a word for it



This week’s words

acarophobia

exclosure

untrack

mise en abyme

zetetic



Squash Fear, Not Spiders! Photo: Tone Killick There’s a word for it A.Word.A.Day with Anu Garg



Where there’s an itch, there’s a scratch. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. Where there’s a word-gap, there’s a word coiner.



Sure, you can use a phrase or a sentence to describe something, but why? Instead, why not come up with a single word for it! That’s how a language grows. Also, if you need this word, chances are someone else does too. So coin away, pollinate the world with your words, and see them bloom.



What words have you coined? Share them below or email us at words@wordsmith.org. Don’t forget to google first to make sure someone else hasn’t thought of it earlier.



Meanwhile enjoy this week’s words that might make you say: I didn’t know there was a word for it. acarophobia PRONUNCIATION: (ak-uh-ruh-FOE-bee-uh)

MEANING: noun:

1. An extreme fear of small insects.

2. A delusion that one’s skin is infested with bugs.

3. A fear of itching.

ETYMOLOGY: scrobiculate, From Greek acarus (mite) + -phobia (fear). Ultimately from the Indo-European root sker- (to cut), which is also the source of words such as skirt, sharp, scrape, screw, shard, shears, carnage, curt, carnivorous, excoriate hardscrabble , and incarnadine

USAGE:

Rosalind Noonan; And Then She Was Gone; Kensington Books; 2014.



See more usage examples of “She was proud of her illustration of thirty phobias; from acarophobia, fear of itchy, crawly insects, to selachophobia, fear of sharks.”Rosalind Noonan;; Kensington Books; 2014.See more usage examples of acarophobia in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Imagine there's no countries, / It isn't hard to do. / Nothing to kill or die for, / And no religion, too. / Imagine all the people / Living life in peace. -John Lennon, musician (9 Oct 1940-1980)





We need your help



Help us continue to spread the magic of words to readers everywhere



Donate