Word of the Day Archive
Monday March 31, 2008
xenophobia \ZEN-uh-FOE-bee-uh\ , noun:
Fear or hatred of strangers, people from other countries, or of anything that is strange or foreign.
After calling for peace in 61 languages and beseeching the world to end racism and xenophobia, the pope made a surprise announcement.
-- "Will the Next Pope Be Catholic", SF Weekly, April 26, 2000
In Europe today, it is xenophobia and the political manipulation of fear of foreigners that pose the greatest threat to democracy, or at least to the quality of democracy.
-- Kofi Annan, "Democracy: An international issue", UN Chronicle, June-August, 2001
The news, the incidents and accidents of everyday life, can be loaded with political or ethnic significance liable to unleash strong, often negative feelings, such as racism, chauvinism, the fear-hatred of the foreigner or, xenophobia.
-- Pierre Bourdieu, On Television
In the embattled atmosphere of wartime France, Apollinaire's quenchless appetite for the new was not widely shared. Xenophobia reigned.
-- Ruth Brandon, Surreal Lives: The Surrealists 1917-1945
The word xenophobia was formed from the Greek elements xenos "guest, stranger, foreigner" + phobos "fear."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for xenophobia
