lyssophobia

Etymology

From lyssa + -o- + -phobia.

Why this word is great

LYSSOPHOBIA — [Noun] The fear of rabies or madness. From Greek lyssa ("rabies, madness") + -phobia ("fear"). Unlike "hydrophobophobia" (which fixates on the symptom of water aversion) or "maniaphobia" (which fears insanity in the abstract), lyssophobia binds the terror of disease to the dread of losing one's mind. It is the feral dog’s foam-flecked jaw snapping in the dark, the fevered delirium of a body turning against itself, the way a loved one’s laugh might suddenly sound like a growl—the visceral understanding that madness can be contagious, and death can wear the face of an animal you once trusted.

noun

  1. The fear of lyssa (rabies), or madness.“A young man, 24 years of age, employed as a clerk in a dry goods store, was bitten on a Saturday morning bu a watchdog belonging to the proprietor. […] [H]e stated that he had been reading about rabies and the symptoms which would develop in man from the bite of a rabid dog, and insisted that he was developing hydrophobia as a result of having been bitten by the watchdog. […] Two days later the yo”