hodophobic

The story

1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*bʰegʷ-“to flee, run”
2. Ancient Greek · derived fromφόβος“alarm, fear, terror”
3. Koine Greek · derived from-φοβία
4. Late Latin · derived from-phobia
5. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*sed-“to sit”
6. Ancient Greek · derived fromὁδός“path, road, way; journey”
7. English todayhodophobic

From hodo- (prefix meaning ‘path, road; travel’) + -phobic (suffix forming adjectives indicating an aversion or dislike, or a fear of a specific thing). Hodo- is derived from Ancient Greek ὁδός (hodós, “path, road, way; journey”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”); while -phobic is from -phobia (from Late Latin -phobia, from Koine Greek -φοβία (-phobía), ultimately from Ancient Greek φόβος (phóbos, “alarm, fear, terror”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰegʷ- (“to flee, run”)) + -ic (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘of or pertaining to’ from nouns). Sense 1 (“of the dendrites of neurons: tending not to form branches”) was possibly coined by Enrique Ramón-Moliner and Walle Nauta in a 1966 article: see the quotation.

Words from the same roots

First known use, by meaning

• from late 20th c. Of the dendrites of neurons: tending not to form branches.