Dictionary

philobat en · NOUN

Etymology

Blend of philo- + acrobat. Coined by Hungarian psychoanalyst Michael Balint in 1955.

Meanings

1. Someone who enjoys handling challenging and dangerous situations on their own.
   • Or maybe this was her true personality coming through, the way alcoholism showed in some people around thirty-five. Jean the philobat, on the pattern of acrobat, the type that prefers to cope alone with difficult, uncertain situations. Though of course she hadn't been alone. 2008, Isabel Fonseca, Attachment, London: Chatto & Windus, →ISBN, pages 182–183:
   • Coordinate term: ocnophil

Forms

Deriveds

philobatic