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I would infer from this that Louise looked up "hole" in the linked English-Greek Dictionary, found that the corresponding Greek word was τρύπα or "trypa", sent a message suggesting that "tryphaphobia" be included as an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary, and received the response from Margot Charlton saying that dictionary entries are based on evidence of usage, and suggesting the spelling "trypophobia" instead of "trypaphobia".

• the oldest Greek compounds show a number of types of connecting vowels, depending in part on the declension of the noun

• in modern Greek only -o- is used to productively form compounds

• in Classical Greek (which was the source of many scientific Latin words) there was sometimes variation between different combining forms due to analogy, or possibly in some cases based on the understood case and number of the first element of the compound (as alluded to by JEL). For example, the Oxford English Dictionary entry on the prefix scio- says it is from

  (i) classical Latin scio- (also scia- ), and its etymon (ii) Hellenistic Greek σκιο-, combining form (in e.g. σκιοθηρικός sciatheric n.) of ancient Greek σκιά shadow ( < the same Indo-European base as Sanskrit chāyā shadow, Middle Persian sāyag shade, shadow, Latvian seja face, (arch.) shadow, (with a suffix) Old Church Slavonic sěnĭ shadow); compare -o- connective.

  A number of Greek words show an earlier form in σκια- and a later form in σκιο-, e.g. Hellenistic Greek σκιαγράϕος (see skiagrapher n.), σκιαμαχία skiamachy n.

I would infer from this that Louise looked up "hole" in the linked English-Greek Dictionary, found that the corresponding Greek word was τρύπα or "trypa", sent a message suggesting that "trypaphobia" be included as an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary, and received the response from Margot Charlton saying that dictionary entries are based on evidence of usage, and suggesting the spelling "trypophobia" instead of "trypaphobia".

• the oldest Greek compounds show a number of types of connecting vowels, depending in part on the declension of the noun

• in modern Greek only -o- is used productively to form new compounds

• in Classical Greek (which was the source of many scientific Latin words) there was sometimes variation between different combining forms due to analogy, or possibly in some cases based on the understood case and number of the first element of the compound (as alluded to by JEL). For example, the Oxford English Dictionary entry on the prefix scio- says it is from

  (i) classical Latin scio- (also scia- ), and its etymon (ii) Hellenistic Greek σκιο-, combining form (in e.g. σκιοθηρικός sciatheric n.) of ancient Greek σκιά shadow ( < the same Indo-European base as Sanskrit chāyā shadow, Middle Persian sāyag shade, shadow, Latvian seja face, (arch.) shadow, (with a suffix) Old Church Slavonic sěnĭ shadow); compare -o- connective.

  A number of Greek words show an earlier form in σκια- and a later form in σκιο-, e.g. Hellenistic Greek σκιαγράϕος (see skiagrapher n.), σκιαμαχία skiamachy n.

I thought I would just add some additional information about the history of this word.

The Wikipedia entry Josh mentions cites a Popular Science article by Jennifer Abbasi, "Is Trypophobia a Real Phobia?" (July 25, 2011). Abbasi did some research and said that at the time

I would infer from this that Louise looked up "hole" in the linked English-Greek Dictionary, found that the corresponding Greek word was τρύπα or "trypa", sent a message suggesting that "tryphaphobia" be included as an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary, and received the response from Margot Charlton saying that dictionary entries are based on evidence of usage, and suggesting the spelling "trypophobia" instead of "trypaphobia".

I thought I would just add some additional information about the history and formation of this word.

##Useful sources that document the history of the word The Wikipedia entry Josh mentions cites a Popular Science article by Jennifer Abbasi, "Is Trypophobia a Real Phobia?" (July 25, 2011). Abbasi did some research and said that at the time

I would infer from this that Louise looked up "hole" in the linked English-Greek Dictionary, found that the corresponding Greek word was τρύπα or "trypa", sent a message suggesting that "tryphaphobia" be included as an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary, and received the response from Margot Charlton saying that dictionary entries are based on evidence of usage, and suggesting the spelling "trypophobia" instead of "trypaphobia".

##My somewhat unreliable notes about the formation of the word

However, as I said, my understanding may not be correct or complete. In particular, I have no knowledge of the timing of the transition that I think occurred to using -o- as the only linking vowel; the OED entry on -logy (published 1903) states:

• As the words of the last-mentioned class have always a n. for their first element, and o is the combining vowel of all declensions of Greek ns., the ending of these compounds is in actual use always -ολογία, becoming -ology comb. form in English.

• The modern formations in -logy follow the analogy of Greek formations in having o as the combining vowel; exceptions are petralogy (an incorrect form which some writers prefer to petrology because it shows the derivation from πέτρα rock, not from πέτρος stone) and mineralogy (French minéralogie) which may be viewed as a contraction for *mineralology.

I suspect that the author of the -ology entry has slightly over-simplified matters in the first quoted section, considering the existence of genealogy (not mentioned in this entry; the OED entry for genealogy says "late Latin geneālogia, < Greek γενεᾱλογία tracing of descent, < γενεᾱλόγος (whence Latin geneālogus) genealogist, < γενεά race, generation + -λόγος"). But perhaps the judgement of "petralogy" as "incorrect" in the second quoted section can be justified based on some history-based criterion that would also apply to "trypaphobia" (e.g. maybe there is some established principle that "a" instead of "o" as a combining vowel is correct in words that are attested in that form in Greek, but not appropriate/correct for "modern formations" i.e. English neologisms formed in the modern day.)