Hi,
How can we call a person who is very afraid of losing face?
Many thanks,
Nessie.
What can we call a person who is very afraid of losing face?
Hi Nessie,
I’m not sure there there’s an exact words for this concept in English. We have many word that allude to dishonor, disgrace, shame, etc., but I can’t think of a single word that means ‘fear of losing face’. In general, Western societies don’t put the same social weight on ‘loosing face’ that many Eastern societies do.
There may be a specific phobia for this, although I couldn’t locate the word, but I suspect think this is a cultural concept that doesn’t translate directly.
The only way I can think of how to express the sentiment you mean is by saying something like “He was terrified (or other word that means greatly afraid of) being disgraced/shamed/humiliated (or other words of similar meaning).”
‘He dreaded any disgrace.’
‘The thought of shame horrified him.’
‘He was mortified of being besmirched.’
And so on. This is an interesting question, I’d like to hear what others come up with.
Can’t find it here?
Anuptaphobia
phobialist.com/#A-
I would call him “proud” or “very proud”. 
how could you pronounce a word from the list above? I seem to have a hard time to pronounce it…any help?
Which word are you having difficulty with?
This is the word “Anuptaphobia” i can’t find it in dictionary or anything.
Why, Gee, Molly, thanks, I never though of searching that or several other phobia lists, failing to find that no, there aren’t any listings for fear of shame, disgrace, humility, etc. Kindly stand aside from the edification path.
Janz, a lot of these phobias are ‘theoretical’, in that they are linguistic constructs. Sure, maybe there are people who actually have those fears, but the names of them are very, very, very uncommonly used, so you won’t find them in most dictionaries. Some of them are theoretical constructs based off of the Latin and Greek words for that particular thing, + ‘phobia’, which is itself Greek for ‘fear’.
You’ll find many similar constructs based on the opposite, ‘philia’, or the love of something.
Consider the following fears and loves. Just because there’s an obscure word for this situation, the number of people who actually use them surely is very, very, few.
For example, perhaps you’ve got ‘onomatophobia’- the fear of hearing certain words, (especially anuptaphobia!).
Then there’s the bane of many children ‘arachibutyrophobia’ - the fear of having peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. This one I’m sure there’s probably wide spread need for, but what are your chances of getting the general public to use it? It’s faster just to say the definition than the word.
Conversely, how about ‘gynotikolobomassophilia’ - the love of nibbling on women’s earlobes. I mean sure, maybe the practice is widespread, but do you think you can work that into a romantic conversation?
To answer your question about ‘anuptaphobia’, it’s pronounced [ə-nəp-tə-fō-bē-ə] or [ā-nəp-tə-fō-bē-ə]
Gosh, Skrej, I’ve always wondered whether there was a word for that.
:lol:
wow that really a good explanation from you, thanks for a lot!!
Take a pill, Skrej.
That’s great, but where is your answer to the thread question?
If you mean the original thread question, oddly enough you’ll find my answer to the first question in my first post, which, unlike your first, second, and third (guess that makes it a trifecta, congrats!) posts to the thread, was an answer such as could be given, instead of just a correction.
I then posted a second answer to a second question in the thread. See my pattern, yet?
Once again, please don’t stand in the way of learning by sidelining topics as you’ve done with this one, yet again.
Go lie down, S.
For sidelining, go see MrP’s posts, and this trolling, off-topic post:
Hi,
I’m not very sure about the word ‘anuptaphobia’. It seems not to be very well-recognised. And here is what I found from the ‘Google Definition’:
What do you think?
.
No, Nessie, that word is definitely not part of most people’s vocabulary. Probably 99% of all native speakers of English (if not more :lol:) would have to look it up.
.
Heh, that was the whole point of my choosing those words Nessie, to illustrate that sometimes even when there is a word to describe something, it may not actually be known or used.
What I meant to indicate was that although it’s possible there is some word which covers the situation you originally asked about, (fear of losing face) in English, nobody will know it.
Although, I still hold that the ‘peanut butter word’ is useful, we just need to get people to start saying it. 