Pronounced: KOM-uh-noot (alt: KOM-uh-nyoot), verb
Notes: Not at all what I thought this word might mean
Yesterday’s word
The word nosophobia is “an abnormal fear of disease”
First usage
Our word came into English in the late 1800s
Background / Comments
You probably recognized -phobia (fear); usually, when describing phobias, we are talking about irrational, exaggerated, or abnormal fear of <whatever>. One of the reasons for hygiene is a fear of catching or spreading disease, but this is not the irrational kind of fear meant by -phobia. The other part of the word comes from the Greek word nósos (disease).
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 