photophobia

English

Alternative forms

• photophobism

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -əʊbiə

Etymology 1

From photo- +‎ -phobia.

Noun

photophobia (usually uncountable, plural photophobias)

1. (medicine) Excessive sensitivity to light and the aversion to bright light; abnormal fear of light.

Translations

excessive sensitivity to light

• Bulgarian: фотофобия f (fotofobija), страх от светлина (strah ot svetlina)
• Catalan: fotofòbia
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 畏光 (wai³ gwong¹)

  Mandarin: 畏光 (zh) (wèiguāng)

• Czech: fotofobie
• Dutch: fotofobie (nl)
• Finnish: valonarkuus
• French: photophobie (fr) f
• German: Photophobia f
• Greek: φωτοφοβία (el) f (fotofovía)
• Hebrew: פוטופוביה (he)
• Italian: fotofobia (it)
• Japanese: 羞明 (ja) (shūmei)
• Korean: 수명(羞明) (ko) (sumyeong)
• Latin: photophobia
• Norwegian: lysømfintlighet
• Polish: światłowstręt (pl) m
• Portuguese: fotofobia (pt) f
• Russian: светобоя́знь (ru) f (svetobojáznʹ), фотофо́бия (ru) f (fotofóbija)
• Serbo-Croatian: фотофобија f, fotofobija (sh) f
• Spanish: fotofobia (es) f

Etymology 2

From photo (“photograph”) +‎ -phobia.

Noun

photophobia (uncountable)

1. An aversion to or fear of being photographed, the dissemination of personal photographs, or viewing photographs.
   • 1947, Ella K. Maillart, The Cruel Way: Switzerland to Afghanistan in a Ford, 1939, University of Chicago Press, published 2013, →ISBN, page 152:

     Photophobia was the latest affliction of Afghan officialdom—by contagion, probably, from Persia which tries to nip in the bud pictures that show her not yet entirely modern.

   • 1998 April 2, Barry Didcock, “How to score with Madonna (or U2 or Leonard DiCaprio)”, in The Scotsman:

     Craig Armstrong doesn't want to be photographed. His record company wouldn't like it, he says, and besides he has flu so he looks a little puffy. So "orders" and vanity combine to stop the shoot, due to take place in a trendy bar in Glasgow's West End.
     The cynic may see alternative reasons for the 39-year-old composer's photophobia, […]

   • 2013, Douglas Crimp, “'Tell a Story, Save a Life' (Montage 1987-89)”, in Brenda Longfellow, Scott MacKenzie, Thomas Waugh, editors, The Perils of Pedagogy: The Works of John Greyson‎^[1], McGill-Queen's University Press, →ISBN:

     He concludes that Mapplethorpe blocks racist photophobia by making the nudes whose penises are not visible highly erotic, while using blatantly penis-focused images to force white viewers to recognize that when they see a black man, they see him not just in possession of a large penis, but actually as a penis (Mercer 1991; Fanon 1952/2008).