is "homophobia" a malapropism?

[Goldom]

it seems so to me... most of the time, it is not a "phobia", or fear, at all. Just hatred. It would be much better of with an -ism ending. (racism, sexism, etc-ism). If someone was, dictionary definition a homophobe, they would not hate them, but merely experience irrational and overwhelming fear if in the presense of one.

Or am I just wrong?

[Snow]

1. From where do you think hatred comes, friend?

[arewethereyet]

8. it certainly isn't fear

noone fears 2% of the population. They don't like the one thing that defines the group.

[neebob]

22. Two percent?!

Where do these tiny little numbers come from? I think it's more like a quarter or even a third of the population, if you count both genders and everybody in the closet and/or denial. I think the actual numbers would scare the bejeebers out of the homophobes. Actually, I think they know it's way more than 2% and that's why they're scared.

[kayell]

2. I like the term bigot myself for these folks

[Paradise]

3. sounds good

to me!

[jokerman93]

4. Well it's fear as well as hate

It's a fear of our own humanity -- how disturbingly complex it really is. Stupid brutes like things either on or off, black or white. When they notice that allot of humanity consists of intermediary states and entire spectrums of color -- well it's just too much information to process inside their little reality boxes.

GAAAA!

It's fear too.

Definitely.

[arcos]

5. Merriam-Webster dictionary disagrees with you...

Main Entry: ho·mo·pho·bia
Pronunciation: "hO-m&-'fO-bE-&
Function: noun
: irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals
- ho·mo·pho·bic /-'fO-bik/ adjective

http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=homophobia

on edit: typo on the subject

[pagerbear]

9. Well, since language evolves over time....

...and most dictionaries tend to reflect current or most common usage first, I'm not sure this dictionary excerpt answers the question.

I've wondered myself over the origins of this word. I think heterosexism is another word that comes close to the meaning we want, but it really suggests more a lack of understanding that there are varieties of human beings other than traditional heterosexuals than the irrational prejudice and aversion homophobia has come to suggest.

I think we've come to the point where the word bigot is a big enough word to include sexual minorities as well as racial, ethnic, and religious. And it suggests that bigoted treatment toward G/L/B/T individuals is no more acceptable than such treatment toward black people, Jews or Muslims, Asians, or women.

Just my two cents.

[arcos]

13. fine... look the definition of -phobia

Main Entry: -phobia
Function: noun combining form
Etymology: New Latin, from Late Latin, from Greek, from -phobos fearing, from phobos fear, flight, from phebesthai to flee; akin to Lithuanian begti to flee, Old Church Slavonic bezati
1 : exaggerated fear of <acrophobia>
2 : intolerance or aversion for <photophobia>
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

-phobia is used to express fear, intolerance and/or aversion, not just the fear...

So, you think "photophobia" is not used correctly either?

[pagerbear]

16. I didn't say anything about correct or not

I merely gave my opinion that a quoted definition from one dictionary didn't really answer the question asked. I am puzzled by your response to my post.

[arcos]

18. I'm sorry...

You are right, my response was more appropriate as a reply to post #10

[iverglas]

21. origins of the word

Google told me when I asked a while ago.

Here's one account: http://www.pflagdetroit.org/george_weinberg.htm

"It was hard", says George Weinberg "to enjoy being one of the chosen people, the 'heteros', when so many people that I admired were not invited to the party." (quoted in Before Stonewall).

An iconoclastic heterosexual, clinical psychologist and gay activist, George Weinberg has tirelessly championed gay rights for many decades, with his own priceless fusion of passion and clear-thinking analysis.

His pioneering book Society and the Healthy Homosexual first published in 1972, sent ripples of shock, disbelief and plain hostility through the community of professional American psychologists. George challenged the conventional notion of homosexuality as a disease and gave gay men and lesbians everywhere a solid theoretical basis for dignity and pride. The Oxford English Dictionary credits George Weinberg with coining the term 'homophobia' which is now a recognized term in the vocabulary of social theory and gay activism alike.

It's a coined word, a neologism. A word was needed for a concept that had never before needed naming, because the problem it described had never before been regarded as a problem. And the person coining it, as a social scientist concerned with both the psychological health and the rights/security of gay men and lesbians, undoubtedly had a particular point of view and approach to the phenomenon he was describing -- irrational fear as the root of hatred.

Raj Ayyar: In the mid-1960's, you coined the word 'homophobia' which hasbecome part of the lexicon of gay theory and activism. It's a concept thatidentifies a certain class of prejudice and parallels terms like 'racism' and 'sexism.'How would you define homophobia?

George Weinberg: Homophobia is just that: a phobia. A morbid and irrational dread which prompts irrational behavior flight or the desire to destroy the stimulus for the phobia and anything reminiscent of it. Because human beings are the stimulus, a common homophobic reaction is brutality in many cases, as we all know. We also know its consequences.

I am very proud of being the one to have coined the word. I remember the moment in 1965 when it came to me with utter clarity that this was a phobia. I was preparing a speech for a homophile group, which set me to thinking about "What's wrong with those people?" By "those people," I had in mind that day a few therapist friends who had liked a gay friend of mine, spoken well of her until I told them that she was a lesbian. Hearing that, they didn't want me to bring her to a party, as if she was a contaminant. Since I kept my own life quite a secret from them, having heard their views too often, perhaps a little bit of rage spurred me on to finding the word. The Roman poet, Catullus, describing how he came to write his love poetry, one wrote, "Anger moves my verse (Ira versum movet) amd I think that healthy anger at injustice has strengthened the love within the gay movement, of which I am very much a part.

The meaning of words can't always be determined accurately by examining their roots in another language. How words are used often "defines" them. It strikes me that some who question the accepted meaning of the word "homophobia" are being petty and disingenuous and exposing their true agenda. (And I absolutely am not saying that about anyone here, but about this tactic as it is seen elsewhere, as just another diversion from the obvious reality of things.)

.

[AngryYoungMan]

10. If arguing if a specific term is ill-conceived, the dictionary won't help.

All the dictionary does is explain what the word means. People who think the word is wrong (like me) are going to argue that the dictionary's got it wrong too. The dictionary's just a mirror of usage in this kind of example.

[arcos]

14. Do you think "photophobia" is wrong too?

See post #13.

[arcos]

19. kick for an answer! n/t

[distortionmarshall]

6. that's why i've started using "homohater"... /eom

:)

[AngryYoungMan]

7. Exactly!

Thanks for pointing this out. The two-dollar psychoanalysis invovled has always bothered me as presumtuous. "They're really just...afraid" is an argument you can make in an academic context, but building it into the word itself is exactly the kind of thing leftists do way too much of.

[Dookus]

11. phobia

doesn't just mean fear of. It can also mean an aversion to. As in hydrophobia.

[meow2u3]

12. Homophobia is actually a misnomer.

The actual Greek roots of "homophobia" are
homo- (for same) and phobia (for fear), so a strict definition of homophobia would actually be "fear of sameness."

[ConsAreLiars]

15. words are always inaccurate

The range of implications carried by the suffix "-phobia" vary from person to person and time to time and the specific context. For example:

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=59405&dict=CALD

Definition
phobia
noun
an extreme fear of a particular thing or situation, especially one that cannot be reasonably explained:
I've got a phobia about/of worms.

-phobia
suffix
Xenophobia means hatred of foreigners.

phobic
adjective, noun
I wouldn't describe myself as (a) phobic but I don't like heights.

phobic
adjective INFORMAL
having a strong dislike of something:
Why are so many companies phobic about employing fat people?


Another site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phobia makes the observation that "The opposite of the postfix phobia is a philia or philie ('the love of')...." This helps clarify the original implications of "phobia" as aversion or dislike as contrasted to an attraction or moving toward.

I think the main value of "homophobia" as a term is that it provides a description of an attitude or disorder without implying any particular cause. Restricting the meaning of "-phobia" to "fear" is inconsistent with the origins of the suffix and current usage. If challenged on the appropriateness of the word, the example of xenophobia might help explain that meaning.

[union_maid]

17. Most "homohaters" seem scared to me

A lot of the anti-gay rights folks seem to me to be the ones who think that everyone is subject to "temptation" to commit homosexual acts. They talk a lot about simply not giving in to temptation. I figure they can't accept that some people are just genetically programmed that way because they feel some attraction to the same sex and can't even conceive that a large segment of the population is neither aroused nor tempted by their own gender. I think accepting that would scare them silly. Well..sillier.

[REP]

20. You've Confused Malapropisms with Euphemisms

A malapropism is using a completely inappropriate and out-of-context word, such as "He was using racial epitaphs." A euphemism is a nice way of saying something unpleasant, such as "passed away" for "died."

Phobos, the Greek root of phobia, means hate. The literal meaning of homophobia is "hatred of the same," but those who create these neologisms weren't thinking literally, and shortened 'homosexual' to homo and added 'phobia' to create the new term, which is commonly used as meaning fear and/or hatred of homosexuals.

[iverglas]

23. one of my faves

For some reason, I recently read or heard an explanation of how Teflon and its cousins work.

They are "hyrdophobic" -- they have an aversion to, they lack an affinity for, water. So watery things don't stick to them, and they don't stick to watery things.

Apparently the same is true of people who have rabies - hyrdophobia.


ed. -- oops, Dookus already said that one. ;)

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