gephyrophobia

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

gephyrophobia (GE-fir-oh-FOH-bee-ah) - n., an abnormal fear of crossing bridges.


Typically not an isolated phobia but one component of a constellation of anxiety disorders, and often causes suffers to take elaborate routes to avoid meeting a bridge. Can also encompass fear of passing under bridges, or panicking while on a bridge. Coined, as you might expect, from Greek roots (there are very few Latin-derived phobias) gephyra, bridge + phobos, fear. For a usage example, I steal from Wiktionary's entry, because it is true:

Venice is a place to avoid if you suffer from gephyrophobia.

---L.