By "external" I mean a person who has a fear or worry of things that could cause serious illness, rather than the fear of already having a serious illness itself. For example, say you worry about things like contaminants in your drinking water, or lead in the products you own or buy that were made in China, and so on. Is there a term for such hypochondriac-ish people like that?
Tell me more
×
English Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for
linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts. It's 100% free, no registration required.
|
|
A mysophobe (or germaphobe) is someone who has a a pathological fear of contamination and germs. |
|||
|
|
That would be covered by germaphobe in the case of being afraid of germs everywhere and toxicophobe in the case of chemical contaminants. |
|||||||
|
|
Panthophobia is a fear of disease; nosophobia is closer, being a fear of becoming ill: but considering the number of things that can hurt or damage a person, pantophobia or panphobia (fear of everything) seems more appropriate. More seriously, you may be looking for a word meaning 'fear of harm'. There simply isn't one, at least in normal usage. "Fear of harm" itself has some currency in medical journals, but I suspect a phobia is irrational and fear of harm is rational (at least to a doctor). |
|||
|
|
