photophobia

photophobia

English

Alternative forms

• photophobism

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -əʊbiə

Etymology 1

photo- +‎ -phobia

Noun

photophobia (usually uncountable, plural photophobias)

1. (medicine) Excessive sensitivity to light and the aversion to bright light; abnormal fear of light.

Translations

excessive sensitivity to light

Bulgarian: фотофобия f (fotofobija), страх от светлина (strah ot svetlina) Catalan: fotofòbia Chinese: Cantonese: 畏光 (wai3 gwong1) Mandarin: 畏光 (zh) (wèiguāng) Czech: fotofobie Dutch: fotofobie (nl) Finnish: valonarkuus French: photophobie (fr) f German: Photophobia f Greek: φωτοφοβία (el) f (fotofovía) Hebrew: פוטופוביה‎ (he) Italian: fotofobia (it) Japanese: 羞明 (ja) (shūmei) Korean: 수명(羞明) (ko) (sumyeong) Latin: photophobia Norwegian: lysømfintlighet Polish: światłowstręt (pl) m Portuguese: fotofobia (pt) f Russian: светобоя́знь (ru) f (svetobojáznʹ), фотофо́бия (ru) f (fotofóbija) Serbo-Croatian: фотофобија f, fotofobija (sh) f Spanish: fotofobia (es) f

Etymology 2

photo (“photograph”) +‎ -phobia

Noun

photophobia (uncountable)

1. An aversion to or fear of being photographed, the dissemination of personal photographs, or viewing photographs.
   • 1947, Ella K. Maillart, The Cruel Way: Switzerland to Afghanistan in a Ford, 1939, University of Chicago Press, published 2013, →ISBN, page 152:

     Photophobia was the latest affliction of Afghan officialdom—by contagion, probably, from Persia which tries to nip in the bud pictures that show her not yet entirely modern.

   • 1998, Barry Didcock, "How to score with Madonna (or U2 or Leonard DiCaprio)", The Scotsman, 2 April 1998:

     Craig Armstrong doesn't want to be photographed. His record company wouldn't like it, he says, and besides he has flu so he looks a little puffy. So "orders" and vanity combine to stop the shoot, due to take place in a trendy bar in Glasgow's West End.

     The cynic may see alternative reasons for the 39-year-old composer's photophobia, […]

   • 2013, Douglas Crimp, “'Tell a Story, Save a Life' (Montage 1987-89)”, in Brenda Longfellow; Scott MacKenzie; Thomas Waugh, editor, The Perils of Pedagogy: The Works of John Greyson‎, McGill-Queen's University Press, →ISBN:

     He concludes that Mapplethorpe blocks racist photophobia by making the nudes whose penises are not visible highly erotic, while using blatantly penis-focused images to force white viewers to recognize that when they see a black man, they see him not just in possession of a large penis, but actually as a penis (Mercer 1991; Fanon 1952/2008).