Fear of Slime
Blennophobia
Blennophobia is the fear of slime, and a Wiktionary editor reviewing the evidence for it made the observation that applies to most words of this kind. It is the fear of mucus, of slugs and snails, and of anything that leaves a trail.
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What the verification file shows
Wiktionary requires disputed words to be supported by durably recorded citations. Blennophobia was nominated for verification and three quotations were added on 28 September 2012. The entry passed on 18 October 2012.
The comment left in between is the useful part. One editor observed that it was a pity all three cites immediately and self-consciously define the word after using it, but supposed they were acceptable.
That is a precise description of how these terms circulate. A word that cannot appear without a gloss attached is not part of the working vocabulary of the people writing it, and the citations that prove such a word exists are also evidence that nobody expects to be understood when they use it.
Which quotations were accepted
The three run like this:
- a crime novel of 2002 has a character say that maybe what the other really has is blennophobia, fear of slime
- a book of advice about horses, published in 2003, describes an animal approaching with snuffling sounds and a twitching nose, so that the reader's blennophobia produces a hurried word of encouragement and a carrot
- a gardening book of 2006, quoted below, is the best of them
The third is the best. A gardening book of 2006 describes the tidy sort of gardener who appears to be the picture of contentment, moving about with sanitised trowels and weeding forks, while in reality being a seething cauldron of aversions, beset by blennophobia, the fear of slime, and spending long hours plotting the annihilation of slugs and snails.
All three define the word in the same breath. All three treat the fear as a mild and slightly comic trait rather than as a condition.
Which Greek roots the names use
Blennophobia comes from the Ancient Greek blennos, a form of blenna, meaning mucus or slime. Myxophobia comes from myxa, which means the same thing. The 2008 encyclopedia of phobias carries myxophobia only as a cross-reference to its own entry for slime, fear of, with no case and no figure attached.
Having two classical roots for a single unpleasant substance and no clinical literature for either is characteristic. The vocabulary was assembled by people with dictionaries rather than by people with patients.
Why the object is not absurd
Many rare phobia words name something nobody could plausibly meet. Slime is not one of them. Disgust at mucus and at slug trails is close to universal, is a standard example of the disgust response, and needs no explanation. It is the family the frog and reptile aversions sit in.
That leaves the word in an odd position. The reaction it names is ordinary, the vocabulary for it is doubled, and the recorded uses are three jokes and a definition. What is missing is any account of somebody for whom the aversion became a phobia, which is precisely what the word claims to describe.
Told apart
Often confused with Fear of Slime
- Fear of FrogsAmphibians are the commonest animal with the relevant surface, and a fear of the texture is difficult to separate from a fear of the creature carrying it.
- Fear of Being TouchedThe trigger here is contact rather than sight, and slime is the substance most often named in accounts of aversion to being touched by something unexpected.
- Fear of GermsMucus is both disgusting and infectious, and no source separates the aversion to the texture from the belief that it carries disease.
Common questions
Questions about Blennophobia
- What did the Wiktionary reviewer object to?
- That the evidence proved too little. Three quotations were added on 28 September 2012 to verify the word, and an editor noted it was a pity that all three immediately and self-consciously define the word after using it. The entry passed verification on 18 October 2012 regardless.
- Why are there two words?
- Because Greek had two. Blennophobia comes from blennos, a form of blenna, and myxophobia comes from myxa, and both nouns mean mucus or slime. Neither term has clinical literature behind it.
- What do the recorded uses describe?
- Mild aversion, usually played for comedy. A crime novel of 2002 offers it as a diagnosis in dialogue, a horse book of 2003 has it triggered by a snuffling muzzle, and a gardening book of 2006 attributes it to tidy gardeners plotting the annihilation of slugs and snails.
- Is disgust at slime abnormal?
- No, and that is what makes the word awkward. Aversion to mucus and to slug trails is close to universal and is a standard example of the disgust response, so a term claiming to name a phobia has to distinguish itself from an ordinary reaction, and no source shows it doing so.
Added 2026-08-24 · Revised 2026-08-26
Nearby in the catalogue
Related entries
- Fear of FrogsA published 1983 case describes a woman whose extreme fear dated from the afternoon her mower went over a group of frogs and killed them.
- Fear of Being TouchedThe clinical record offers a definition and a list of symptoms. The only accounts of where the fear comes from are in fiction, and they say abuse, consistently.
- Fear of GermsWilliam A. Hammond made the word in 1879 describing an OCD case of repeated hand-washing. It now names a specific phobia, which are treated differently.
- Fear of ClothingVestiphobia is a fear of clothing, usually of one fabric or one garment. One source calls it a word-list term, the other an under-recognised disorder.
- Fear of ColorsClinical fears of colour are rare and usually attach to one hue. The same word names an old argument that Western taste has always distrusted colour.
- Fear of FeathersWiktionary failed the word for want of citations in 2010, and a Nigerian psychiatry journal published the first case report under the name in 2022.