What is the actual definition of xenophobia? Is it misused nowadays?

Question

I am trying to understand the meaning of the word xenophobia. A simple Google search gives the following: "dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries". The majority of the definitions I have found online revolve around hate, racism, dislike, etc. Few of them also revolve around fear, which one could argue that is somehow related to prejudice. Wikipedia states: "Xenophobia is the fear or hatred of that which is perceived to be foreign or strange". Another definition I have seen is "unjustified fear of an 'other'".

The world xenophobia originates from the Greek word Ξενοφοβία which is a combination of the words "ξένος" and "φοβία". The former means "foreign(er)" or "strange(r)" while the latter means "fear". As you can see, none of the two words has anything to do with hate or dislike.

Based on the above one could say that xenophobic is a person who is afraid of foreigners or different cultures or different "things". But this does not mean that this person hates them or dislikes them. He/she is just afraid of them consciously or unconsciously.

However, nowadays people use the word xenophobia when they talk about hate, dislike, or racism. As I explained above, even most dictionaries focus on hate/dislike/racism instead of fear, which has a completely different meaning.

Here are my questions now:

• Is any of my above statements wrong?
• What is the correct/original meaning of the word xenophobia?
• Why most people use this word to express hate and/or racism?
• What is the real difference between racism and xenophobia?
• What is the right word one should use to describe a person who is afraid (but not hate or dislike) of foreign/strange/different cultures/people/things consciously or unconsciously, justifiably or unjustifiably?

EDIT1:

In regards to my last question: I guess I am looking for a word like arachnophobia but for humans or cultures. To my understanding, arachnophobia is the irrational and extreme fear of spiders, but it doesn't mean that you hate them or dislike them. One can be afraid of spiders because he/she was bitten by them many times, but at the same time admire them for a number of reasons (anatomy, evolution history, colours, etc). Alternatively, one can be afraid of them only in the thought that they can bite her/him, but at the same time admire them.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Actually Xenos meant a Greek speaking foreigner to Greece, e.g. a Roman who spoke Greek (like Julius Caesar).

A barabaros is the Greek word to denote a foreigner who could not speak any Greek (and Romans felt same if one could not speak either Greek or Latin). Thus exists the word barbarian.

So strictly speaking Xenophobia should only apply to the Schismatic Greeks. Truth is they fear the Latin Filioque and Roman customs, thus they fear the Union of Florence, and rejected it. That is the real Xenophobia because many of the Latin scholars and bishops could speak Greek at the time and this persists to this day. This is only literary meaning which this word can apply to in fact.

Based on the Trojan War Romans celebrate through Virgil the adage to fear the gifts of the Greek: "I fear the Danaans [Greeks], even those bearing gifts" as said by the Trojan priest Laocoön as he warned of accepting the Greek's gift of a great wooden horse to appease Poseidon. The rest is history. To fear something for a good reason as Laocoön did makes sense for the reason of good commonweal and prophetic wisdom foreseeing danger - that is the nature of the fear - a horse would come to bring utter chaos and destruction. Of course fearing the equestrian gift is NOT a xenophobia. It is a caution, prudence, and vigilance. Unfortunately for the Trojans they did not see the reason for his fear by means of their ignorance and thereby accepted it.

So let the Xenophobia invoked by Barbarians cease - they have no right to claim its usage - and by common logic of mind this both Greek and Roman can agree to -that ancient letters and honor of their Fathers should remain in tact and not stained by Barbarians who pretend to be educated in Classics (or not even!) and misuse the words of the eloquent tongue to pronounce a misnomer. Let it cease! Invent your own barble (new word coined as Barbarian babble).

Answer 2

My theory is that xenophobia entered English through the EU's widespread use of "xenophobia" as the official translation for the German word Ausländerfeindlichkeit, which literally translates as "antipathy to foreigners" but I would normally call "anti-immigrant sentiment". I'm a German-to-English translator and so am biased in this respect, but I started learning about xenophobia about 20 years ago when I was training to be a conference interpreter and one of my professors dredged up a lot of EU speeches on Ausländerfeindlichkeit and insisted on us calling it "xenophobia".

Of course, this is just my personal experience.