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Homophobe
11 March 2005
Homophobe. To most people the word today means someone who is either afraid of gay/homosexual people or issues, dislikes or is opposed to them.
Wrong! The word drives me crazy.
The word homophobe is composed of two well-defined Greek roots:
Hmmm. Fear of the same thing you are? Fear of something that lurks within? Well, it was first used to describe "an irrational fear of sexual attraction to the same sex." Now it generally means "prejudice against (fear or dislike of) homosexual people and homosexuality." Fear of gays, lesbians and bisexuals.
Fear as indicated by the term 'phobia' is generally irrational or abnormal. Phobia does not mean dislike, distrust, discrimination or aversion. It means fear.
Those who are usually termed "homophobes" because of their resistance to gay rights or same-sex marriage are not necessarily afraid, often merely conservative in their social and cultural views. They should really be described as "homeostatics" - people resistant to change. Sure. I can see that word taking off. But calling them "homophobes" is incorrect in every sense of the word.
The word 'homophobia" was apparently coined around 1969 (homophobe first appears in print in 1975). Illiterates (or lazy newspaper reporters - sometimes it's difficult to distinguish them) who obviously did not understand what the components meant applied it to an altogether different meaning of their own making. There's a certain irony here because the words suggests a fear of what some people repress in themselves.
This linguistic nonsense has since become popular enough to get repeated in modern dictionaries, despite its incorrect construction and appallingly bad usage. Such is the way English evolves: from silliness and slang to acceptance. Next thing you know, bling will appear in the dictionaries.
Language evolves. And that's a good thing. When English doesn't have the right word for a concept or item, it cleverly absorbs the appropriate one from another language. Glasnost, sushi, taco, bureau, angst, perestroika, samurai, kamikaze, omlette, igloo, teepee... these are examples of words we've taken into our own daily vocabularies when we lacked a suitable corresponding term. But we really should avoid accepting invented words into our dictionaries or newspapers when they clearly don't fit their intended meaning.
Homophobe is now bounced around as an invective and political term in common usage. Few people today understand what 'homophobia' actually means and often confuse the Latin and Greek roots. It doesn't help that neither classical language is commonly taught in schools these days. Homo in this construction has nothing to do with me, and really nothing to do with sex.
An earlier word was "uranophobia" (Ologies and Isms, A Thematic Dictionary, edited by Howard Zettler, Gale Research, 1978) The root comes from ouranus or heavenly/celestial.
Uranism is a 19th century term for homosexuality (Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, 1966). The name comes from Urania, one of the Greek Muses (and Muse of astronomy), and Uranus, Greek god and father of the Titans.
Psychological textbooks were written about uranism (Magnus Hirschfield: Causes and Essence of Uranism, 1903). In his Symposium, Plato defined the reason for the term: Uranian, or Heavenly, Aphrodite oversees same-sex love between men (see Uranism in Plato's Symposium). The word apparently first appears in a German novel from 1885 (see Karl Uhlich's Manor.
Homosexual itself is a bad mix of Greek (homo - same) and Latin (sexualis), meaning same-sex (so it can be equally applied to gay or lesbian). It entered our language in 1892. It too gained popular use and is now ensconced in our dictionaries. At least it has a relevant meaning, even if the construction is poor - and it's far too late to change that usage. As a result, the term "homo" now generally means male homosexual and puerile listeners titter at the use of perfectly bland words like homogenized (and invariable mispronounced as "ho-mo-genized" not "hoh-moh-genized").
Properly, one should be called a 'homosexualophobe' or - to be more politically correct (and incorrect in language construction) - a gayophobe (since gay itself has evolved from meaning happy to mean both male and female homosexuals.) But that would be an equally awkward construction...
(NB. According to the About Psychology and other sites, today uranophobia (also spelt ouranophobia) refers to an abnormal and persistent fear of heaven.
Wrong! The word drives me crazy.
The word homophobe is composed of two well-defined Greek roots:
- Homo - meaning the same. As in homogenized, as in homonym and homophone.
- Phobe - meaning fear. As in arachnophobia or triskadekaphobia. Usually an "abnormal" fear.
Hmmm. Fear of the same thing you are? Fear of something that lurks within? Well, it was first used to describe "an irrational fear of sexual attraction to the same sex." Now it generally means "prejudice against (fear or dislike of) homosexual people and homosexuality." Fear of gays, lesbians and bisexuals.
Fear as indicated by the term 'phobia' is generally irrational or abnormal. Phobia does not mean dislike, distrust, discrimination or aversion. It means fear.
Those who are usually termed "homophobes" because of their resistance to gay rights or same-sex marriage are not necessarily afraid, often merely conservative in their social and cultural views. They should really be described as "homeostatics" - people resistant to change. Sure. I can see that word taking off. But calling them "homophobes" is incorrect in every sense of the word.
The word 'homophobia" was apparently coined around 1969 (homophobe first appears in print in 1975). Illiterates (or lazy newspaper reporters - sometimes it's difficult to distinguish them) who obviously did not understand what the components meant applied it to an altogether different meaning of their own making. There's a certain irony here because the words suggests a fear of what some people repress in themselves.
This linguistic nonsense has since become popular enough to get repeated in modern dictionaries, despite its incorrect construction and appallingly bad usage. Such is the way English evolves: from silliness and slang to acceptance. Next thing you know, bling will appear in the dictionaries.
Language evolves. And that's a good thing. When English doesn't have the right word for a concept or item, it cleverly absorbs the appropriate one from another language. Glasnost, sushi, taco, bureau, angst, perestroika, samurai, kamikaze, omlette, igloo, teepee... these are examples of words we've taken into our own daily vocabularies when we lacked a suitable corresponding term. But we really should avoid accepting invented words into our dictionaries or newspapers when they clearly don't fit their intended meaning.
Homophobe is now bounced around as an invective and political term in common usage. Few people today understand what 'homophobia' actually means and often confuse the Latin and Greek roots. It doesn't help that neither classical language is commonly taught in schools these days. Homo in this construction has nothing to do with me, and really nothing to do with sex.
An earlier word was "uranophobia" (Ologies and Isms, A Thematic Dictionary, edited by Howard Zettler, Gale Research, 1978) The root comes from ouranus or heavenly/celestial.
Uranism is a 19th century term for homosexuality (Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, 1966). The name comes from Urania, one of the Greek Muses (and Muse of astronomy), and Uranus, Greek god and father of the Titans.
Psychological textbooks were written about uranism (Magnus Hirschfield: Causes and Essence of Uranism, 1903). In his Symposium, Plato defined the reason for the term: Uranian, or Heavenly, Aphrodite oversees same-sex love between men (see Uranism in Plato's Symposium). The word apparently first appears in a German novel from 1885 (see Karl Uhlich's Manor.
Homosexual itself is a bad mix of Greek (homo - same) and Latin (sexualis), meaning same-sex (so it can be equally applied to gay or lesbian). It entered our language in 1892. It too gained popular use and is now ensconced in our dictionaries. At least it has a relevant meaning, even if the construction is poor - and it's far too late to change that usage. As a result, the term "homo" now generally means male homosexual and puerile listeners titter at the use of perfectly bland words like homogenized (and invariable mispronounced as "ho-mo-genized" not "hoh-moh-genized").
Properly, one should be called a 'homosexualophobe' or - to be more politically correct (and incorrect in language construction) - a gayophobe (since gay itself has evolved from meaning happy to mean both male and female homosexuals.) But that would be an equally awkward construction...
(NB. According to the About Psychology and other sites, today uranophobia (also spelt ouranophobia) refers to an abnormal and persistent fear of heaven.
