Dictionary

hydrophobe en · NOUN

Etymology

Borrowed from French hydrophobe, from Latin hydrophobus, from Ancient Greek ὑδροφόβος (hudrophóbos), from ὑδρο- (hudro-, “water”) + φόβος (phóbos, “fear, dread”).

Meanings

A hydrophobic compound or material.
Someone who is affected by hydrophobia (a fear or aversion to water).
- If I talk to 10 people, there is usually a fellow hydrophobe among them. It is hard to pick them out, because a person who is afraid of water looks very much like a normal person. But, from talking with fellow hydrophobes, I have discovered something we almost all share: more times than not, our fear of water stems from one intensely bad experience that came during our childhoods. 2006 July 2, Frank Gannon, “The Deep”, in The New York Times Magazine, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 16 Jan 2018:
- The shock of the meeting triremes was tremendous, and in a moment the poor little hydrophobes were spluttering in the pond: […] 1861 September 7, “Tale of the Tub”, in The Living Age, volume XIV (third series), number 901, Boston, M.A.: Littell, Son, & Co., →OCLC, page 613, column 1: