Talk:Oudenophobia/@comment-120.29.72.52-20151024164749

Though it is but a hypothesis, the o as a symbol for zero was an abbreviation of the Greek word for "nothing", ουδέν. The stem nil- in nilophobia is from Latin, a contracted form of nihil meaning "nothing". Following convention that the stems should be Greek in origin, the phobia would not be nilophobia, but oudenophobia. Similarly, the fear of 9 would be enneaphobia and not nonaphobia. The stem nona- is from Latin, and the Greek stem for nine is ennea-. Of course the names of phobias are not written in Greek, but have been transliterated and Latinized. For example, acrophobia is seen more preferable to the spelling than is akrophobia. The latter spelling is closer in correspondense to the Greek letters. Still, the root word of phobias are generally Greek in origin, with the spelling but Latinized.