Hello, I was wondering if you could assist me. I am looking for a term (i.e.____phobia) for the fear of elevators for a play that I am working on. If you happen to know it, or if you could point me in a direction where I could find this out, it would help a lot. Thanks in advance. Yours, Amy Garrett e-mail: zozo@sfsu.edu

-- Amy Garrett (zozo@sfsu.edu), May 27, 1997

Answers

OK... I'll try !

Hello Amy, Having done my research, as I'm sure you have, I have also been unsuccessful at nailing this one down. However, for consideration of a good-ol-boy try, I offer the following: Cleithrophobia or Cleisiophobia- Fear of being locked in an enclosed place. The above info came from The Phobia List at http://www.sonic.net/~fredd/phobia1.html. My personal contribution to this would be: Elevaphobia - When pronounced fast, it's very descriptive! Regards,
Ray Griffin
ElevatorMax)

-- Ray Griffin (rgriffin@cct.infi.net), May 31, 1997.

Latin for "Elevator"?

The following response came from Fredd Culbertson, the webmaster of "The Phobia List", mentioned in my previous post in this thread.
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This is a tough one. Elevator come from elevate, which comes from the Latin Elevat(us). To please the pundits, new phobia stems must be of Greek origin, since phobia is Greek. So, forms taken from elevator should not be used. There are a number on names on the list that use L/Gk and they are usually frowned upon, but if they are used in the medical profession and are found in a reference book then I will add them to the list. Coming up with a new name is a pretty involved process, which you can see if you check how long it took to come up with the name for clown phobia.
I'll see what I can uncover. I'll contact some of the language professors and see if they have any suggestions that may be accepted. The fur flies when I stick something on there that they don't approve of, unless of course I can cite a proper reference for it. I get the most mail from students of Gk that want to "set me straight." :)
-Fredd
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Fredd Culbertson
fredd@sonic.net
http://www.sonic.net/~fredd "My Home Page"
The Phobia List
The American Yo-Yo Association
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-- Ray Griffin (rgriffin@cct.infi.net), June 01, 1997.

E-mail follow-up on Name for fear of elevators.

Follow-up from Fredd Culbertson-Webmaster of The Phobia List. . . RAG

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The concensus seems to be that the fear of elevators falls under Clautophobia. I don't know that it applies to every case but it would cover a majority of them. I don't know that this helps you. It would be easier if the ancient Greeks had a word for elevator.
-Fredd
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Fredd Culbertson
fredd@sonic.net
http://www.sonic.net/~fredd "My Home Page"
http://www.sonic.net/~fredd/phobia1.html "The Phobia List"
http://ayya.pd.net/ "The American Yo-Yo Association"
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Ray Griffin
rgriffin@cct.infi.net
ElevatorMax ) 1996
http://www.geocities.com/wallstreet/1484/


-- Ray Griffin (rgriffin@cct.infi.net), June 09, 1997.

Try Otisitis.

-- anonymously answered, July 10, 1997