melanophobia

melanophobia noun: fear, hate, or dislike of black people.

Noun (1)

melanophobia (uncountable)

Fear, hate, or dislike of black people.
- The sympathy of Maga with white oppressors of black men, has been shown in several recent articles, in which it classes negroes with monkeys and gorillas; as inferior to the whites as white men are to angels.—Vol. xci, p 4; and xcvii, 34, 152. This, and its unjust and bitter invectives against the...1867, John Wesley Thomas, “Blackwood and the Blacks”, in Poems on Sacred, Classical, Mediæval, and Modern Subjects, London: Elliot Stock, […], page 190
- Modern commentators and preachers explain the first four verses of the first chapter as referring to the “Church’s love unto Christ” and the fifth verse as “the Church’s confession of her deformity.” Surely this illegitimate idea was hatched in a brain diseased with what Dr. Edward W[ilmot] Blyden...1893, Rufus L. Perry, “Color of the Egyptians”, in The Cushite or the Descendants of Ham as Found in the Sacred Scriptures and in the Writings of Ancient Historians and Poets from Noah to the...
Fear of, or aversion to, the colour black.

melanophobia (uncountable)

(rare) Fear of ink.
- This odious apparatus of pen and ink! Why cannot we hold intercourse together without this formidable machinery? I have a perfect melanophobia, and I go on like Coleridge, with his headache in bed, longing to write, yet always wanting the time for something else.1840 February 28, Thomas Whytehead, [Letter to F. W. H⸺]; republished as Poetical Remains and Letters of the Late Rev. Thomas Whytehead, M.A., London: Daldy, Isbister & Co., […], 1877, page 75
- To most people suffering from too much pen the idea of homœopathic treatment is inexpressibly repulsive. They leave no address; they would, if it were possible, omit the cursed implement from their baggage altogether; they suffer from what might be, if it has not already been, called...1882 July 15, “Reminiscences of My Irish Journey in 1849”, in The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science, and Art, volume 54, number 1,394, London: […] the Office, […], page 88, column 1

கருவண்ண வெருளி

Edward W[ilmot] Blyden calls “melanophobia.”[…]Edward W.1893, Rufus L. Perry, “Color of the Egyptians”, in The Cushite or the Descendants of Ham as Found in the Sacred Scriptures and in the...
[…]papers of the last two months, arising from every section of the country, that a glance into the medical aspects of melanophobia cannot be devoid of interest and should not pass unobserved.1903, The Medical News, page 414, column 1:
But I ought not to tell you so, for having become Yankee now, of course you are being steeped in their melanophobia.1922, The Missionary Herald, page 135:
Our press tells us daily of outrages and stupidities committed under pressure of melanophobia.1968, Fernando Henriques, Family and Colour in Jamaica, 2nd edition, Macgibbon & Kee:

From Ancient Greek μέλᾱς (mélās) + -o- + -phobia.

From Ancient Greek μέλᾰν (mélăn) + -o- + -phobia.

What does melanophobia mean?: Melanophobia means fear, hate, or dislike of black people.
What is melanophobia in Tamil?: Melanophobia in Tamil is கருவண்ண வெருளி. See Melanophobia meaning in Tamil.
How do you use melanophobia in a sentence?: Edward W[ilmot] Blyden calls “melanophobia.”[…]Edward W.
What part of speech is melanophobia?: Melanophobia is a noun.

Adapted from Wiktionary: melanophobia (page history and authors); melanophobia (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “melanophobia.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/melanophobia. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.