Bromidrosiphobia

/broʊˌmɪdroʊsɪˈfoʊbiə/ noun

Definition

An irrational fear of having body odor or of smelling bad due to excessive sweating.

Etymology

From Greek bromidrosis (foul-smelling sweat) + phobos (fear). Bromidrosis itself comes from bromos (stench) + hidrosis (sweating), combining two Greek roots for fear of a specific bodily condition.

Kelly Says

This clinical phobia reveals how humans worry about bodily functions in social contexts—it's one of the most precise fears in medical terminology, showing how specific human anxieties become encoded in language.

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