Salutations, rambunctious readers! It’s time for another round of An Assemblage of Grandiose and Bombastic Grandiloquents. Put away the spray and wipe, the mop and the broom, because today’s word is: ablutophobia. 

Ablutophobia is a word for the persistent fear of cleaning, washing or bathing. It occurs most frequently in children and women than men, but is not a very common phobia. The word comes from the Latin ‘abluere’ where ‘ab’ means ‘away’ and ‘luere’ meanings ‘wash’, paired of course with our well known Greek ‘phobos’ meaning ‘fear’. You might recognise the phrase ‘morning ablutions’ referring to one’s morning routine, usually consisting of brushing your teeth, showering, washing your face, and other general grooming tasks. Indeed, the word ‘ablute’ means ‘to wash oneself’. 

In chemistry, ablution originally referred to the purifying of oils and other substances by emulsification with hot water. Now more generally, it means ‘a thorough cleansing of a precipitate or other non-dissolved substance’. 

Ablution can also refer to ritual purification, and occurs in Christian, Jewish and Islamic practices, among others. In Judaism, ritual washing takes two main forms. ‘Tevilah’ is a full body immersion in a mikveh, and ‘netilat yadayim’ is the washing of the hands with a cup.

The Islamic practice, known as ‘Wuḍūʾ’ is the Islamic procedure for wiping parts of the body and involves washing the hands, mouth, nostrils, arms, head and feet with water. There is also ‘ghusl’, the Arabic term referring to the full-body ritual purification mandatory before the performance of various rituals and prayers, and ‘tayammum’, the act of dry ritual purification using a purified sand or dust, which may be performed in place of ritual washing if no clean water is readily available or if one is suffering from moisture-induced skin inflammation or scaling.

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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