My bedmate informed that last night, in the wee hours, I uttered the strange words, "fear of clowns."
Thanks to her I then remembered doing so (I had forgotten). But why those words? I had no context. Was I in the throes of some sort of clownish nightmare?
Or was it merely a vocabulary exercise? Perhaps, in my dream, I searched for the English word for "fear of clowns." I know there is such a word, and in the morning, I tried to recall it, but without success. I then tried to re-invent a word, but the best I could do was "bozophobia," which is clearly an undignified and inadequate invention. The existing and correct word, I soon discovered, is coulrophobia, a curious modern coinage, dating only to the 1990s. Coulrophobia is, for some mysterious reason, derived from the Greek word for "stilt-walker." (There's a modern Greek word for clown, κλόουν, transliterated as klóoun, which I suspect to be a recent borrowing from American English.)
Coulrophobia can be a serious affliction. According to the Cleveland Clinic, coulrophobia can lead to hyperhidrosis. I myself am neither coulrophobic nor hyperhidrosic.
The nighttime mystery remains. Why in the world would a semi-normal guy blurt out the words "fear of clowns" at 2 am in the morning. In the long history of human sleeping and dreaming, has such a thing ever happened before? Or will it again?
Truly, I am a fascinating individual. Especially during the night. During the waking hours, not so much.
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