A.Word.A.Day --siderodromophobia

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Today's Word

siderodromophobia

PRONUNCIATION:

(sid-uh-ruh-droh-muh-FOH-bee-uh)

MEANING:

noun: The fear of trains.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Greek sidero- (iron) + dromos (running) + -phobia (fear). Earliest documented use: 1879.

USAGE:

“He went at night, by sleeper, and was able to make the most interesting observations of siderodromophobia. ... he was aghast with certainty that something had gone wrong -- a bridge was out, a train was ahead of them; perhaps another was coming just behind them, about to smash into them at sixty miles an hour.”
Sinclair Lewis; Arrowsmith; Harcourt Brace; 1925.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

To blame the poor for subsisting on welfare has no justice unless we are also willing to judge every rich member of society by how productive he or she is. Taken individual by individual, it is likely that there's more idleness and abuse of government favors among the economically privileged than among the ranks of the disadvantaged. -Norman Mailer, author (31 Jan 1923-2007)

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