Today’s WOTD – 9 September 2012

scotophobia

PRONUNCIATION:
For 1: (sko-tuh-FOH-bee-uh)
For 2: (ska-tuh-FOH-bee-uh)

MEANING:
noun:
1. Fear of the dark or night (also known as nyctophobia – pronounced [nik-tuh-foh-bee-uh])
2. Fear or hatred of Scottish people or culture.

ETYMOLOGY:
For 1: From Greek scoto- (darkness) + -phobia (hatred, fear). The opposite is photophobia and a synonym is nyctophobia. Earliest documented use: 1844.
For 2: From Scoto- (Scottish) + -phobia (hatred, fear). Earliest documented use: 1828.

USAGE:
“In the grip of scotophobia — those palpitations, that slurry speech, the way she shook when it grew dark.”
Matthew Emmens; Zenobia: The Curious Book of Business; Berrett-Koehler; 2008.

Today’s quote

‘Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no-one thinks of changing himself.’

Leo Tolstoy

On this day

9 September 1543 – Mary Stuart crowned ‘Queen of Scots’. She was 9 months old.

9 September 1828 – birth of Leo Tolstoy, Russian writer, (‘Anna Karenina‘, ‘War and Peace‘). Died 20 November 1910.

9 September 1890 – birth of Harlan Sanders who eventually becomes a Colonel and chickens throughout Kentucky, and ultimately the rest of the world, are never the same again as he invents Kentucky Fried Chicken. Died 16 December 1980.

9 September 2004 – Australian Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, bombed. 10 people killed.