What is up, my grammar gangstas? Welcome to another go around of An Assemblage of Grandiose and Bombastic Grandiloquents. I ask you to take a deep breath in, take a deep breath out, and know that you are a wonderful and important human as we discuss today’s word: kakorrhaphiophobia. 

Kakorrhaphiophobia is, simply put, the fear of failure, defeat, or looking bad. Now I know some of you out there might be thinking, ‘Oh yes, this phobia certainly applies to me’, but it is normal for almost everyone to have some fear of failure, making a mistake, or embarrassing oneself. Kakorrhaphiophobia applies specifically to those with an abnormal fear of failure that can be so crippling, one may not be able to attempt the thing at which they wish to succeed in the first place. Patients diagnosed with kakorrhaphiophobia often have symptoms ranging from occasional anxiety to anything associated with panic such as shortness of breath, nausea, and shaking. Because of their fear, many patients choose to live in total isolation. Being diagnosed with kakorrhaphiophobia is quite rare. It has been documented that the best way to overcome this fear is to accept risk and failure head on. By understanding that failure is sometimes the path to success, people are encouraged to pursue their goals, whatever the risk.

Kakorrhaphiophoibia’s origins lie in the Greek ‘kakos’ meaning bad or evil, ‘rraphia’ meaning ‘I sew’, and ‘phobos’, meaning fear. Thus, ‘a fear that I will create bad or evil.’ Interestingly, the word ‘cacophony’, meaning ‘a harsh discordant mixture of sounds’ shares the same root. A synonym for kakorrhaphiophobia is ‘atychiphobia’, which means ‘a fear of failure characterised by the inability to attempt any goal that is not a guaranteed success.’ Atychiphobia similarly comes from the Greek ‘atyches’ meaning ‘unfortunate’. 

So, carpe diehm, or seize the day! Dare yourself to try something, and don’t be afraid to fail, for, as Albert Einstein said: ‘Failure is success in progress!’

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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