A person unduly fearful or contemptuous of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples.
xenophobia xen'o·pho'bi·a n.xenophobic xen'o·pho'bic adj.
xenophobe
Dictionary:
xen·o·phobe (zĕn'ə-fōb', zē'nə-)  |
n.
xenophobic xen'o·pho'bic adj.
xenophobic xen'o·pho'bic adj.
| 5min Related Video: xenophobe |
| Word Overheard: xenophobia |
People who have an irrational fear or hatred of foreigners ironically suffer from a condition whose name is composed of two Greek words, xenos and
"Mr. Bush is hoist on his own petard. For four years, the White House has accused anyone in Congress or the press who defended civil liberties or questioned anything about the Iraq war of being soft on terrorism. Now, as Congress and the press turn that accusation back on the White House, Mr. Bush acts mystified by the orgy of xenophobia."
Link: G.O.P. to W.: You're Nuts!
Posted February 23, 2006.
See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words. 
| Dental Dictionary: xenophobia |
n
An anxiety disorder characterized by a pervasive, irrational fear or uneasiness in the presence of strangers, especially foreigners, or in new surroundings.
| Political Dictionary: xenophobia |
Literally, fear of foreigners or strangers, though the term is often used to refer to attitudes of hatred or contempt rather than pure fear. Xenophobia is different from chauvinisme in French or jingoism in English, which both suggest an excessive patriotism or national self-esteem, because it consists primarily of negative attitudes towards the outside group.
Xenophobic emotion has always played a part in the outlook of groups and communities. Its persistence defies the ideological universalism of most of the dominant movements of ideas, such as liberalism and socialism, in the past two centuries and drives the more doctrinaire political phenomena of racism and nationalism. Xenophobic tendencies seem most prominent where familiar structures and traditions have broken down, as in Germany after 1918 or Eastern Europe in the 1990s after the collapse of communism. They tend to manifest themselves in hostility towards immigrants and Jews. In the early twenty-first century migrants seeking political asylum became the most frequent targets of xenophobia in many countries.
— Lincoln Allison
| Science Dictionary: xenophobia |
(zen-uh-foh-bee-uh, zee-nuh-foh-bee-uh)
An unreasonable fear, distrust, or hatred of strangers, foreigners, or anything perceived as foreign or different.
| Wikipedia: Xenophobia |
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This article has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page.
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Xenophobia is a dislike and/or fear of that which is unknown or different from oneself. It comes from the Greek words ξένος (xenos), meaning "stranger," "foreigner" and φόβος (phobos), meaning "fear." The term is typically used to describe a fear or dislike of foreigners or of people significantly different from oneself, usually in the context of visibly differentiated minorities.[citation needed]
General
According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the word xenophobia consists of two parts: xeno (a combining form meaning "guest, stranger, person that looks different, foreigner") and phobia, ("fear, horror or aversion, especially if morbid").[1]
It is more broadly defined in the Dictionary of Psychology "a fear of strangers". [2] As defined by the OED, it can mean a fear of or aversion to, not only persons from other countries, but other cultures, subcultures and subsets of belief systems; in short, anyone who meets any list of criteria about their origin, religion, personal beliefs, habits, language, orientations, or any other criteria. While some will state that the "target" group is a set of persons not accepted by the society, in reality only the phobic person need hold the belief that the target group is not (or should not be) accepted by society. While the phobic person is aware of the aversion (even hatred) of the target group, they may not identify it or accept it as a fear.
As with all phobias, a xenophobic person has to genuinely think or believe at some level that the target is in fact a foreigner. This arguably separates xenophobia from racism and ordinary prejudice in that someone of a different race does not necessarily have to be of a different nationality. In various contexts, the terms "xenophobia" and "racism" seem to be used interchangeably, though they can have wholly different meanings (xenophobia can be based on various aspects, racism being based solely on race and ancestry).
Xenophobia has two main objects:
The first is a population group present within a society that is not considered part of that society. Often they are recent immigrants, but xenophobia may be directed against a group which has been present for centuries, or became part of this society through conquest and territorial expansion. This form of xenophobia can elicit or facilitate hostile and violent reactions, such as mass expulsion of immigrants, pogroms or in the worst case, genocide.
The second form of xenophobia is primarily cultural, and the objects of the phobia are cultural elements which are considered alien. All cultures are subject to external influences, but cultural xenophobia is often narrowly directed, for instance, at foreign loan words in a national language. It rarely leads to aggression against individual persons, but can result in political campaigns for cultural or linguistic purification. Isolationism, a general aversion of foreign affairs, is not accurately described as xenophobia.
See also
- Racism by country
- Discrimination
- Ethnic cleansing
- Genocide
- Intercultural competence
- List of phobias
- List of xenophobic terms
- Nationalism
- Nativism
- Racism
- Xenophily
- Xenophobe
- Race and crime
- Tribalism
- Xenocentrism
References
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This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
| Translations: Xenophobia |
Dansk (Danish)
n. - xenofobi, fremmedhad
Nederlands (Dutch)
xenofobie (vreemde- lingenangst/-haat)
Français (French)
n. - xénophobie
Deutsch (German)
n. - Fremdenfeindlichkeit, Xenophobie
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ξενοφοβία
Português (Portuguese)
n. - xenofobia (f)
Русский (Russian)
ксенофобия (ненависть к иностранцам)
Español (Spanish)
n. - xenofobia
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - främlingshat/-skräck
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
仇外, 惧外者
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 仇外, 懼外者
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 외국인을 싫어함, 외국 것을 싫어함
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 外国人恐怖症, 外国人嫌い
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) الزينوفبيه أي الرهبه الشديدة الغير منطقيه من الأجانب وكراهيتهم
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - שנאת-זרים, בעת-זרים
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Word Overheard. © 1999-2009 by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Dental Dictionary. Mosby's Dental Dictionary. Copyright © 2004 by Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Political Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics. Copyright © 1996, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Science Dictionary. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Phobia. © 1999-2009 by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Xenophobia". Read more |
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Mentioned in
- Ministry of Sound's Trance Nation America (2000 Album by Jimmy Van M & Taylor)
- Hirobumi Ito (Japanese statesman)
- Christine Lavin (Folk Artist, '80s-2000s)
- Xenophobe
