cainophobia

English

Alternative forms

• cainotophobia

Etymology

From the Ancient Greek roots καινός (kainós, “new”) or καινότης (kainótēs, “newness”) +‎ -phobia.

Noun

cainophobia (uncountable)

1. The fear of newness and/or of things that are new.

   Synonym: neophobia

   • 1962, Liberal Education, volume 48, page 518:

     It is not by means of a social xenophobia and cainophobia that we shall succeed in junking our sawdust goals but only by a sincere and passionate openness to new experience.

   • 2002 September 4, maf1029 [username], “Re: Homosexuals have phobias”, in alt.politics.homosexuality‎^[1] (Usenet):

     Sounds like a raging case of cainophobia with a large side helping of gnosiophobia.

   • 2009, Bruce I. Reiner, “The Challenges, Opportunities, and Imperative of Structured Reporting in Medical Imaging”, in Journal of Digital Imaging:

     The question to ask is whether this free text fixation is the result of report optimization, inertia, or cainophobia.