the.com/arachnophobia
Fear of spiders, the only roommate that pays rent in dead flies.
means An intense, often irrational fear of spiders.
from Built from Greek parts: 'arachne' (spider) plus 'phobos' (fear, panic). Arachne herself is a figure from Greek myth — a mortal weaver so skilled she challenged a goddess, and was turned into a spider for her pride. The word 'phobia' entered English via Greek 'phobos,' god of fear, and became the go-to suffix for naming dreads in the 19th century, when doctors started cataloguing fears like specimens.
- origin
- greek arachne, the woman turned spider for bragging
- prevalence
- affects up to 1 in 3 women, fewer men
- irony
- most spiders cannot even bite through human skin
- evolutionary theory
- ancestors who feared spiders avoided venomous bites, survived