Welcome linguistophiles! Today I have a tale to tell you about the word “Allodoxaphobia”. Allodoxaphobia is an extremely rare phobia; that is, the phobia of the opinions of other people. 

The phobia is believed to be associated with previous encounters wherein the person affected has not been able to properly express themselves, or has been mocked for their opinion. It is most obvious in social situations when the Allodoxaphobic refuses to involve themselves in discussions or shows a fear of confrontation.

The origin of the word comes from the Greek ‘allo’ (or állos meaning ‘different’), ‘dox’ (dóxa meaning ‘opinion’ or ‘way’) and phobia (meaning ‘fear’, obviously). 

Doxa is an interesting example of a Greek linguistic root. It gives us such modern words as ‘orthodox’ and ‘heterodoxy’ and comes from the Ancient Greek verb ‘dokein’ meaning ‘to appear’, ‘to seem", "to think" and "to accept". In a more general sense ‘doxa’ is a common belief or popular opinion and in classical rhetoric, ‘doxa’ is often contrasted with ‘episteme’, which means ‘knowledge’. Therefore these two words demonstrate for us the difference between belief and knowledge.

The really interesting thing is that between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC ‘doxa’ picked up a new meaning. when the Septuagint, that is a Greek version of the Bible, translated the Hebrew word for "glory" (kavod) as doxa. This translation went on to be proliferated by the early church.

The effects of this new meaning of doxa as "glory" are made evident by the ubiquitous use of the word throughout the New Testament and in the worship services of the Greek Orthodox Church. So you see what has happened here? Doxa went on a little linguistic journey in meaning from ‘belief’ to ‘glory’ all the way around and back to ‘belief’. 

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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