Meanings
plural credophiles
- One who gets positive pleasure from belief and pain from doubt; one who collects beliefs not for utility but for glitter and for whom, once he or she has embraced a belief, it takes something more than mere disproof to make to let go.
- One who is especially gullible.
The mere advent of the Spiritual Science Chair seemed to have been received as a beacon of opportunity for all manner of credophiles, so I guessed, rightly, that Miriam would come a-running if I dangled the prospect of an alternative analysis of the efficacy of homeopathic remedies.
2007, Christopher Brookmyre, Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks, →ISBN, page 203
Origin
- Latincredo“to believe”
- Englishcredophile
Coined by L. Sprague de Camp from Latin credo (“to believe”) + -phile (“liker, lover”). First known use is in a personal letter from de Camp to James Randi (which is thought to still exist in Randi's archives but is not readily available for study). The word "credophile" and the adjective form "credophilic" were used by L. Sprague de Camp at least as early as 1952 in "Lands Beyond" which he co-authored with Willie Ley (De Camp, L. Sprague & Willie Ley. Lands Beyond. NY: Rinehart, 1952, pp. 268, 272
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
credophile. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/credophile
“credophile.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/credophile. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “credophile,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/credophile.
Source: credophile on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.