Pop Culture dictionary
proditiophobia
[proh-dish-ee-oh-foh-bee-uh] or [proh-dih-tee-oh-foh-bee-uh]
What does proditiophobia mean?
Do you have a niggling worry that your friends are out to get you? Or, that your partner is going to double-cross you?
Then you might be suffering from proditiophobia, the fear of being betrayed by someone you love.
Where does proditiophobia come from?
Phobias are psychological conditions characterized by an extreme fear of something, whether it’s spiders (arachnophobia), being outside (agoraphobia), heights (acrophobia), or, in this case, being betrayed by someone you love (proditiophobia).
Gaithersburg / Whisper
Phobia comes from Greek word phobos, meaning “fear.” Phobia has been used as a combining word for various fears since the 18th century, sometimes in playful formulations (e.g., politicophobia, or “fear of politicians”), clinical anxieties (claustrophobia, “fear of enclosed spaces”), or hatred (xenophobia, “intense dislike of foreigners”).
Proditiophobia is a more observational formation, meant to give a name to a fear of being betrayed—something we can all relate to, but which isn’t exactly pathological. The proditio- in the term comes from the Latin proditio, meaning “betrayal” or “treason.”
Added to Urban Dictionary in 2015, proditiophobia has received some popular attention thanks to internet content pairing zodiac signs with phobias, which has made the rounds in various forms since the mid-2010s. Sorry, Scorpios.
Me.me
Examples of proditiophobia
Who uses proditiophobia?
Proditiophobia is an obscure term, occasionally appearing on internet lists or discussions of … obscure –phobia words.
what phobias do y'all have? i have
– claustrophobia
– arachnophobia
– athazagoraphobia
– autophobia
– social phobia
– proditiophobia
– and the one where you're scared of losing people you love , like them dying and then also the one where it's just losing your friendship— 𝕂𝔸𝕐𝕃𝔼𝔼 | ia (@kloudedklaus) February 12, 2019
People may use proditiophobia to explain why they have intimacy issues or can’t trust others. Someone who suffers from proditiophobia is said to be proditiophobic.
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of proditiophobia like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of proditiophobia that will help our users expand their word mastery.