‘Phile’ is an interesting word root (which is used as suffix and prefix as well). This root is super-interesting, for it is one which is based on ‘love’ and talks only of ‘love’. Well, love is one thing that fascinates mankind and you would be surprised that we have built literally a small vocabulary databank based on this root. Let’s dig into some of these words:
1. Aerophilately – collecting of air-mail stamps i.e. the stamps used to mail objects by air.
2. Ammophilous – sand-loving; preferring to dwell in sand. This word is mainly used for insects, reptiles or animals which prefer living in sandy conditions.
3. Anglophilia – love or fondness for England or the English. The word is formed by using ‘Anglo’ for English and ‘philia’ for fondness.
4. Anthophilous – loving or frequenting flowers. ‘Antho’ is a Greek word for flowers.
5. Canophilia – love or fondness for dogs. The root word here is ‘can’ that is usually used as ‘canine’ which means dog.
6. Chromophilous – staining easily. The root word is ‘chromo’ for colour and and this term is mainly used for a certain type of cloth that picks up dirt or stains very easily.
7. Dendrophilous – fond of trees. The word root here is ‘dendron’ which means ‘tree’ in Greek. This term can be used for some environmentalists which protest against deforestation.
8. Hydrophilous – loving or preferring water. The root word here is ‘hydro’ which means water. Anyone who likes water or likes to go to places which have water bodies is a Hydrophilous person.
9. Paraphilia – any abnormal sexual attraction. ‘Para’ means ‘beside’ in Greek so love for anything besides normal is known as paraphilia.
10. Retrophilia – love of things of the past. ‘Retro’ means old so retrophilia is used for a person who likes old things. E.g. people who like old movie songs are retrophilic.
Post contributed by Archit Sehgal.
