Meaning
What does Megalophobia mean?
Megalophobia is the condition in which the subject suffers from terror, triggered by large objects, buildings, animals or even sceneries (mountains, cliffs etc.).
Every subject lives with the disorder differently, and everyone is afraid of different things to a different extent, though the common ground in all cases is the large size of the fear-inducing object.
Origin
What's the origin of Megalophobia?
The word originates from the 19th century, having a similar form to that of megalomania, which is an obsession with the exercise of power.
“Megalophobia” however is the fear of great things, megalos being the Greek word for big or great, -phobia being the term for fear or terror from something.
While some people are empowered by the notion that they are small and irrelevant, thus have nothing to fear from, others are crushed by this realization and reminded of this trauma by everything large on this planet.
Spread & Usage
How did Megalophobia spread?
This phobia is relatively unknown and not so widely spread as, for instance, arachnophobia.
It had gained a bigger traction on the internet in 2014, when Reddit had another subreddit created, with the title /r/megalophobia.
The whole purpose of the thread is to upload pictures of large things, specifically to trigger “megalophobics”.
The subreddit has a small community of but 261 thousand users.
