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Is there a word ___phobia that means "fear of being burned"?

English Language & Usage Asked by codingatty on December 24, 2020

I’m looking for a word that means the phobia “fear of being burned.”

“Pyrophobia” is fear of fire, which is close, but not quite it. I’m not looking for a fear of fire itself, but actually a fear of being burned, either by fire or by anything hot, like the heating coil on an electric stovetop.

A Google search found a phobia wikia with “encavmaphobia“, but I’m skeptical. Neither it nor any similar word is in the OED, and there are no hits in Google Books; and I can’t think what that encavma root might refer to. (The closest nearby word in the OED is “encave”, marked Obs. and meaning “to put into a cellar; to hide”; no apparent relation to burning.) I see a few (very few) uses of it on blogs, but they’re all within the last year; and this entry was added about a year and a half ago. If it were a real word, I’d expect to find some instances that date from before that wikia page was created; I suspect those bloggers found the same wikia that I did.

(Update: I see that έγκαυμα (énkavma) is apparently the Greek word for “burn”, which explains the encavma- root. But I still suspect the Wikia editor was making up his own word.)

3 Answers

Nothing stops you from coining your own. The monoracinate word would be kaiophobia, but I think crematophobia would be immediately understood.

Correct answer by Malvolio on December 24, 2020

I think the word thermophobia may answer your question. Seeing the "thermo" in it, it is obviously a fear of heat, which may include getting burnt. You may be skeptical about it, but it is far more popular than encavmaphobia. The search thermophobia is on some dictionary pages and wikis, not including Webster Dictionary. This may solve your problem because it was updated recently on Wikipedia:

Thermophobia (adjective: thermophobic) is intolerance for high temperatures by either inorganic materials or organisms. [...] In medicine, thermophobia refers to a sensory dysfunction, sensation of abnormal heat

Dictionary.com

thermophobia: noun a fear of heat

Answered by Anibanani on December 24, 2020

Pyrophobia doesn’t work for me because while I love fire, I can’t tolerate the thought of anything like frying oil, or something sugar based that’s extremely hot and would stick to your skin. It’s why I don’t fry food or make anything like caramel.

Answered by Stephanie on December 24, 2020

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