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Today's Word "Misoneism"

An extreme stickler for detail and form on

Published in Vocabulary

misoneism \mi-seh-NEE-i-zehm\ (noun) - Fear of novelty, newness or innovation.

"Never one to embrace electronic communications, Eric was the sort of misoneist who still only has snail mail."

 

From Italian misoneismo from Greek miso- "hatred" + neos "new." The Greek stem miso- is found in several English words, including misogyny "hatred of women," misandry "hatred of men," misanthropy "hatred of people," misopedist "child-hater," and misocapnist "tobacco-hater," a former Word of the Day. Most Indo-European languages retain a reflex of the root for "new." Latin "novus" and English "new" share the same origin as Russian "novyi," Serbian "nov," Spanish "nuevo," Hindi "navina," Persian "now," Gaelic "nuadh," Norwegian "ny," and corresponding words in many other Indo-European languages. Greek "neos" also underlies "Naples," a reduction of Greek Neapolis "New City." The agentive noun is "misoneist" and the adjective, "misoneistic."


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