# When did the definition of homophobia change?



## tFighterPilot

Homophobia used to mean "fear of people", but nowadays it means "fear of homosexuals". When did the change occur?


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## Oranje

_homo (from homosexual) +‎ -phobia, coined in 1971 by George Weinberg in Society and the Healthy Homosexual._

Homophobia and anthropophobia were both current at the time. Today, only anthropophobia carries the first meaning.


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## Cenzontle

The Oxford English Dictionary says
• homophobia #1: "rare.  Fear of men, or aversion towards the male sex; also, fear of mankind, anthropophobia." 
First documented in 1920, meaning aversion towards human males; 
and as meaning "fear of blushing when appearing before a person" in 1960.
• homophobia #2: "Fear or hatred of homosexuals and homosexuality", first documented in 1969 (_Time_ magazine, Oct. 31).


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## tFighterPilot

Interesting. So it seems like the former definition did not appear before the 20th century either.


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## fdb

There are people that one calls purists. I gladly include myself in that category. One of the things we purists object to is the combination of Greek and Latin roots in the same word, as in tele-vision, soci-ology, homo-sexual. The modern Greeks do not like this either, so they say τηλεόραση, κοινωνιολογία, and ομοφυλοφιλία respectively. In English one could perfectly well say teleorasy, coenoniology and homophylophilia, if one wanted, and, as the antonym of the last, homophylophilophobia, which I actually rather like as a word.

“Homophobia” is doubly horrible. Let us start with the 1920s definition. First-year Latin students know that Latin homo means a human being of either sex, as opposed to vir for a male human being. So (if one turns a blind eye to the Latin+Greek compound) homophobia could conceivably mean hatred of the human race, but cannot by any stretch of the imagination mean hatred of the male sex. As for the 1960s wheeze of first truncating “homosexual” to “homo” (as in Charles Aznavour’s “je suis un homme, oh…”) and then attaching the Greek “phobia” – give me “homophylophilophobia” any day.

PS. There was a typo in the earlier version of this. My proposal is in fact "homo-phylo-philo-phobia", which could be pronounced with /aj/ in the 3rd syllable and /i/ in the 5th.


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## exgerman

fdb said:


> – give me “homophylophobia” any day.



Does that mean "fear of the same leaves"? or did you mean homophilophobia. which would mean "fear of the same friend"?

Purism is hard.


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## Delvo

The "homo" in "homosexual" is from Greek for "same" (opposite of "hetero" for "opposite/different"), not Latin for "person".


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## fdb

Delvo said:


> The "homo" in "homosexual" is from Greek for "same" (opposite of "hetero" for "opposite/different"), not Latin for "person".



Yes, but not in the case of the OED's "homophobia 1" (see no. 3).



exgerman said:


> Does that mean "fear of the same leaves"?



No. phylon (one l) means "race, tribe, kind". phyllon (double l) means "leaf".


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## bearded

exgerman said:


> Does that mean "fear of the same leaves"? or did you mean homophilophobia. which would mean "fear of the same friend"?


In Greek there is
1. phylon = sex, race
2. phyllon = leaf
Purism is harder than you think.

EDIT: cross-posted with fdb


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## Hulalessar

"Homophobia" shows the sort of thing that happens as regard is not always (or indeed often) paid to linguistic purism. If we are to stick to Greek the word should mean "fear of the same" and the meaning "fear of humans" should never have been allowed.

Even though the word already existed, "homophobia" was a deliberate coinage by George Weinberg conceived as a combination of _homo(sexual)_ + _-phobia. _It may be noted that whilst the primary meaning of _-phobia_ is "fear of" not all homophobes fear homosexuals.


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## Unoverwordinesslogged

fdb said:


> There are people that one calls purists. I gladly include myself in that category. *One on the things we purists object to is the combination of Greek and Latin roots in the same word*, as in tele-vision, soci-ology, homo-sexual. The modern Greeks do not like this either, so they say τηλεόραση, κοινωνιολογία, and ομοφυλοφιλία respectively. In English one could perfectly well say teleorasy, coenoniology and homophylophilia, if one wanted, and, as the antonym of the last, homophylophilophobia, which I actually rather like as a word.
> 
> “Homophobia” is doubly horrible. Let us start with the 1920s definition. First-year Latin students know that Latin homo means a human being of either sex, as opposed to vir for a male human being. So (if one turns a blind eye to the Latin+Greek compound) homophobia could conceivably mean hatred of the human race, but cannot by any stretch of the imagination mean hatred of the male sex. As for the 1960s wheeze of first truncating “homosexual” to “homo” (as in Charles Aznavour’s “je suis un homme, oh…”) and then attaching the Greek “phobia” – give me “homophylophilophobia” any day.
> 
> PS. There was a typo in the earlier version of this. My proposal is in fact "homo-phylo-philo-phobia", which could be pronounced with /aj/ in the 3rd syllable and /i/ in the 5th.



Minds me of the official/scientific(?) words for someone who prefers women to look adult downstairs ("pubephilliac") vs someone (most of Western society and Jewish beliefs(?) and Muslim beliefs(?)) who insist on infantile-like unnatural hairless woman's crotch ("acomoclitism").

'pubephilliac' (especially the _-philliac_ ending) makes those who see nothing wrong with women looking natural downstairs seem like evil zealots and sounds also somewhat belittling, whereas 'acomoclitism' seems almost warm and even-handed-like and unbelittled in comparison.

I'm told this maybe the fall-out of one word taking a Latin ending and the other word a Greek ending, ?

Guess hairy-crotches have always been the norm throughout history - hence the gainsay to it (bald crotches) got a noble-like word whilst a friendliness to hairy crotches didn't get a word of its own until nowadays - hence the word is loaded with an -philliac agenda.


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## Perseas

Hello,



fdb said:


> “homophylophilophobia”


In Greek  «ομοφοβία» from "homophobia" is a relatively new word but it's very common the last years.
«Ομοφυλοφιλοφοβία» is rare until vanished.


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## Cenzontle

Note that the _OED_'s definition #1 (fear of man) is labeled "rare".  
When it came time to coin a word for anti-homosexual sentiment, "homophobia" was, semantically, lying virtually idle on the floor of the word-shop, 
waiting to be picked up and resupplied with meaning.  
Yes, phobia meant fear, but no  other well-known Greek root for an aversion seemed available.  
Purists like you and me can fume all we want, but language belongs to people who are, in their majority, non-purists.


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## apmoy70

Perseas said:


> Hello,
> 
> In Greek  «ομοφοβία» from "homophobia" is a relatively new word but it's very common the last years.
> «Ομοφυλοφιλοφοβία» is rare until vanished.


Yes, I'm afraid the anglicism has taken over (oh the horror, the horror!).
All kidding aside, I'm with fdb on this.


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## Delvo

I've heard of people objecting to combinations of Latin & Greek in the same English word before, but I've never gotten why.



Cenzontle said:


> Yes, phobia meant fear, but no  other well-known Greek root for an aversion seemed available.


And "phobia" has had some other uses unrelated to "fear" for a long time anyway. In chemistry, things that don't mix with water or that water doesn't stick to or soak into are "hydrophobic", and "hydrophobia" is also an old, essentially obsolete name for rabies. Neither involves actual fear of water. (The rabies symptom is lack of thirst or difficulty swallowing or something like that, not actual fear of water, and of course chemicals have no behavior at all.)


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## Englishmypassion

Dear Delvo, one correction please, if you don't mind. Extreme fear of water/hydrophobia is a symptom of rabies. Even the OALD defines _hydrophobia_ as "extreme fear of water, which happens with rabies infection in humans"


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## Quiviscumque

Cenzontle said:


> [...] Yes, phobia meant fear, but no  other well-known Greek root for an aversion seemed available. [...]



I am afraid that is not entirely accurate. Look here:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0057:entry=mise/w
and think of _misanthopy_, _misogyny_, _misoneism_.


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## Pedro y La Torre

fdb said:


> There are people that one calls purists. I gladly include myself in that category. One of the things we purists object to is the combination of Greek and Latin roots in the same word, as in tele-vision, soci-ology, homo-sexual. The modern Greeks do not like this either, so they say τηλεόραση, κοινωνιολογία, and ομοφυλοφιλία respectively. In English one could perfectly well say teleorasy, coenoniology and homophylophilia, if one wanted, and, as the antonym of the last, homophylophilophobia, which I actually rather like as a word.
> 
> “Homophobia” is doubly horrible. Let us start with the 1920s definition. First-year Latin students know that Latin homo means a human being of either sex, as opposed to vir for a male human being. So (if one turns a blind eye to the Latin+Greek compound) homophobia could conceivably mean hatred of the human race, but cannot by any stretch of the imagination mean hatred of the male sex. As for the 1960s wheeze of first truncating “homosexual” to “homo” (as in Charles Aznavour’s “je suis un homme, oh…”) and then attaching the Greek “phobia” – give me “homophylophilophobia” any day.
> 
> PS. There was a typo in the earlier version of this. My proposal is in fact "homo-phylo-philo-phobia", which could be pronounced with /aj/ in the 3rd syllable and /i/ in the 5th.



Dear me! Thankfully for the rest of us, people with ''learned'' views like yours are ignored by the general public.


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## Stoggler

So self-styled purists don't like words formed by a mixture of elements from Greek and Latin. Do they also extend that dislike to words formed by a mixture of Romance and Germanic origins, or do they just cherry pick which originating languages to get all worrisome about? It all smacks of good old fashioned snobbery and pomposity surrounding the classical languages (as demonstrated so well in post number 11 above)


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## francisgranada

Maybe I do not say anything new or interesting, but I should spontaneously analyze the word _homophobia _as something like "fear of similar", not necessarily as "fear of equal sexual orientation" (but _inclusive_). Not  because of "purism" as we use a plenty of Graeco-Latin technical terms like e.g. _television _(already mentioned), but in case of "fear of/from people" I should expect something like *_hominiphobia_.


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## fdb

francisgranada said:


> I should spontaneously analyze the word _homophobia _as something like "fear of similar"



Exactly.


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## francisgranada

fdb said:


> In Greek and Latin compounds the first component is normally in the stem form (i.e., undeclined).


Ok, but the stem is not _homo_. Or is it? ... We have e.g. _homicida (matricida, genocida_...). Yes, not *_hominicida_ as I have "suggested", but not even *_homocida_, i.e. not the pure nominative "as is" ...


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## fdb

Yes, homicida, homicidium.


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## Gavril

Quiviscumque said:


> Cenzontle said: ↑
> [...] Yes, phobia meant fear, but no other well-known Greek root for an aversion seemed available.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I am afraid that is not entirely accurate. *[...]* think of _misanthopy_, _misogyny_, _misoneism_.
Click to expand...


As an aside, I've wondered why the -_phobia_/-_phobe _suffix often seems to be preferred over the_ mis_(_o_)- prefix, even in contexts where the latter seems more accurate. E.g. _xenophobia_ often seems to be used to refer to hatred or dislike of foreigners, rather than fear of them.

In some cases, hatred or dislike may be accompanied (or motivated) by fear, and some see this as the justification for using -_phobia_ over _mis_(_o_)-, but I wonder if the primary reason is simply phonetic/morphological simplicity. -_phobia_ is 1-2 syllables longer than_ mis_(_o_)-, and it has a more reliable stress pattern, so maybe it is easier to form a new word with -_phobia_ and be confident that the listener will understand what you mean.

You have to make a couple of assessments in order to form a word with _mis_(_o_)- in English: whether or not to use the -_o_-, where to place the stress, how the stress affects the quality of vowels (e.g., the different "o"-pronunciations in _misánthr*o*py _vs. _mísanthr*o*pe_), and so on.



francisgranada said:


> Maybe I do not say anything new or interesting, but I should spontaneously analyze the word _homophobia _as something like "fear of similar",



Wouldn't that be _hom*eo*phobia_? (from Greek _homoio- _"similar", as opposed to _homo- _"same")


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## Kevin Beach

What it all boils down to is that the word that is thrown unthinkingly at anybody who isn't prepared to jump onto the gay pride bandwagon does not, as its users would wish, mean "Hatred of homosexuals", but simply "Fear of the same". Like "justice", "rights" and "democracy", it is used as a mantra, as though that were all that is necessary to explain its meaning.


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## Quiviscumque

francisgranada said:


> Ok, but the stem is not _homo_. Or is it? ... We have e.g. _homicida (matricida, genocida_...). Yes, not *_hominicida_ as I have "suggested", but not even *_homocida_, i.e. not the pure nominative "as is" ...



_Dans _homicīda_ il y a eu substitution d'un thème en -o- (_*homŏ-_) au thème en -n- (_*homŏn-_) comme dans _nuncupo_ (de _*nōmo-cupō_), _*nōmi-cupō_); [...]Le procédé n'est pas spécial aux thémes en -n-, cf. _foedi-fragus_, _volnificus_, etc.)_

(Ernout-Meillet sub _homō_)


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## Polyvius

Gavril said:


> I've wondered why the -_phobia_/-_phobe _suffix often seems to be preferred over the_ mis_(_o_)- prefix, even in contexts where the latter seems more accurate. E.g. _xenophobia_ often seems to be used to refer to hatred or dislike of foreigners, rather than fear of them.


It is part of the tactics of an  aggressive pro-gay campain. The word "phobia" sounds medical, "scientific", and implies a mental disorder. i.e. if you detaste homosexuality, there is something wrong with you but if you tolerate it you are healthy. The same applies to the w. _xenophobia_, aggressively used by the "cultural left" of the West, who is all-out supporting the migration into Europe and N. America. Again, if you don't like migration you are "phobic" and you may need some treatment. 
I agree that something like "miso-homosexual" or better "anti-homo(sexual)" reflects better the feelings of those "phobics". I am one of them and I assure you that I'm not "affraid". Similarly, I don't like fish-food but I'm not _ichthyo-phobic_. 
The O.p. question makes me wonder if "homo-" (όμοιος, the same) and homo (human) have a common origin. All humans we are όμοιοι (the same), and the same word was defining the Spartan warriors. It may have a democratic and co-operative connotations, as it means "equals", and is related to "homou" (together) . This assumption may be supported by the Gr. w. "ημείς" (hemeis) = we.


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## fdb

Polyvius said:


> The O.p. question makes me wonder if "homo-" (όμοιος, the same) and homo (human) have a common origin.




Greek h and Latin h cannot correspond to one another in inherited words. ὁμός, ὁμοῖος are cognate with English “same” (IE *som-H-o- or the like). Latin homo is assumed to belong with humus “earth”, which would make it cognate with χθών etc (IE *ĝhzem- or the like).


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## fdb

Gavril said:


> Wouldn't that be _hom*eo*phobia_? (from Greek _homoio- _"similar", as opposed to _homo- _"same")




Greek (and English) form compounds both with homo- (from ὁμός) and hom(o)eo- (from ὁμοῖος). Both can mean either "the same" or "similar".


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## Hulalessar

How words are formed and once they are formed what they come to mean is beyond anyone's control. It is pointless to drag up the etymology and wave it around. Some people insist, for example, that "nausea" should only be used to refer to sea-sickness and "nostalgia" to home-sickness. That is plain ridiculous.

As a combining form in words used to describe anxiety disorders _-phobia _refers to an irrational or exaggerated fear of or aversion to something. "Aversion" is not the same as "hatred" but if you are averse to something there is a good chance you hate it. Outside psychiatry therefore and in words such as _homophobia_ and _xenophobia_, like it or not, hatred is often considered an ingredient.

The (mis)use of words is all part of ideological warfare. The negative attititudes to homosexuality are many and various and by no means all on a par. In many cases it is a question of otherwise reasonable people believing unreasonable things for a variety of reasons. Having a different word for every attitude would be nice, but can hardly be expected. And of course it is not one-sided. All pro-gay campaigns are presented as "aggressive" or "in your face". If A calls B a xenophobe then B declares that A is in favor of unlimited immigration. Any suggestion that people should be nice to each other is denounced as political correctness gone mad.


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