baby: See nepiomania
bacillophobia: A fear of germs, bacilli, or microbes in general.
backside, obviously looking at someone's: See
pygoscopophobia
bacteria: See
bacteriaphobia, bacteriophobia, microbiophobia
bacteriaphobia, bacteriophobia: An abnormal fear of being in contact with germs or bacteria and such phobics usually have compulsions about hand washing and cleanliness because people know that some bacteria cause infections.
A mighty creature is the germ,
Though smaller than the pachyderm.
His customary dwelling place
Is deep within the human race.
His childish pride he often pleases
By giving people strange diseases.
Do you, my poppet, feel infirm?
You probably contain a germ.
-Ogden Nash
In the Nineteenth Century, men lost their fear of God
and acquired a fear of microbes.
-Anonymous
A bacteriologist is someone who thinks in terms of millions.
-Anonymous
bad men: See
sclerophobia
bad water: See
cacohydrophobia
baldness: See
alopeciaphobia, chaetomania, chaetophobia, peladophobia, phalacraphobia
balletomania: A passionate addiction to ballet dancing.
ballistomania: A fascination with bullets.
ballistophobia, ballistrophobia: An exaggerated fear of missiles, including bullets, or of being shot. Those who fear missiles may have experienced being shot at in war or even by a sniper or snipers in war or in city streets. Also see sniperphobia.
bancomania: A craze for establishing banks.
barophobia: A fear of gravity or heaviness which is related to the fear of perceivable changes in air pressure; and, it may refer to the fear of being overweight.
barren spaces: See
cenophobia, kenophobia
basement, cellar: See
botophobia
basiphobia, basophobia: 1. With humans, the inability to stand or to walk for fear of falling down as a result of death. 2. In plants, an inability to adapt to alkaline soils.
basistasiphobia, basostasophobia: An exaggerated fear of standing or walking that is related to the fear of falling, collapsing, or dying.
bathing: See
ablutomania, ablutophobia
bathmophobia, bathomophobia: An overly intensive fear or hatred of walking and a fear of stairs, escalators, or crossing a threshold.
bathophobia: An excessive fear of depths or of descending into depths; such as, when looking down into a well which includes the fear of losing control of oneself while in a high place or a fear of falling from a height and thus being killed. Also mistakenly said by some to be a reference to an intense dislike of bathing; but batho means "deep" not "bath".
bathysiderodromophobia: A morbid fear of subways or any similar traveling situation that exists underground (including the North Sea Chunnel?).
If a man harbors any sort of fear,
it percolates through all his thinking,
damages his personality,
makes him landlord to a ghost.
-Lloyd Douglas
batophobia: An abnormal fear of passing or walking close to high objects; such as, high buildings or tall trees; dread of heights. A compound of Greek batos, "passable," a verbal adjective of bainein, "to go". The association of Greek batos with "height" is apparently a result of a connection of this word with the second element in acrobat because acrobats are associated with the idea that they perform their arts high over ground levels. A much better name for this condition is acrophobia, hyposophobia, or even anablepophobia (the fear of looking up at high places). Batophobics may ask others to reach items from high shelves and they certainly won't climb a ladder.
