The love of good and bad
Ratna Raman
THE word philosphy is split up into ‘philo’ (love) and ‘sophia’ (wisdom). It is from this root word, referring to the love of wisdom, that the suffix ‘phile’ draws its strength. It comes to the English language from the Greek ‘philos’. Attaching itself to nouns and adjectives, ‘phile’indicates a great attraction or love for something. There is an abundance of independent nations whose presence had added a great number of ‘philes’ to the language. An Indophile is someone who loves India or Indians; an Afrophile is a person who loves Africa or Africans. An Anglophile loves all things English while a Francophile is devoted to everything about France. This fascination has little to do with citizenship or nationality and demonstrates how ideas and words provide visas for those desirous of navigating international boundaries.
The suffix ‘phile’ attaches itself to more than just nations. In ‘spermophile’, sperm refers to seeds and a spermophile is a great lover of seeds. The word describes the ground squirrel or the gopher, living primarily on seeds and storing them as well. Humans who eat seeds are usually classified as ‘vegans’ (consumer of plant products). This is because most humans tend to be ‘foodophiles’ and eat a broad range of plant foods such as stems, leaves, shoots, fruit and root.
A bibliophile loves books. An arachnophile is a person who loves spiders. It would be correct to say that volunteers at Frendicoes are ‘caninophiles’ who nurse and shelter abandoned, injured and sick dogs.
A large number of words take on ‘phile’ as a suffix. Sometimes attachment can be self-centred and uncaring of the well-being of the object of love. Love then becomes a distortion and a perversion and there are words in language which describe this too.
The term ‘necrophile’, which refers to ‘a person pathologically attracted to dead bodies’. Robert Browning hints at necrophilia in his poem, Porphyria’s Lover. Of late, necrophiles have featured in all their ugliness in newsprint, murdering women and raping their dead bodies or pulling bodies out of graves to violate them. Statistically, male necrophiles outnumber the female, making necrophilia yet another act of sadistic violence directed against hapless female bodies.
Another disturbing word, the ‘paedophile’ refers to a psychiatric disorder wherein an adult or an older adolescent preys upon young prepubescent children having developed a primary sexual attraction for them.
A ‘xenophile’ is someone who loves foreign (xeno) people and their lifestyles. It is possible for a xenophile to broaden his or her understanding of the world by learning about other cultures. However, our Prime Minister’s international travel has been unfavourably received by both Left and Right wing in our country. The Left’s opposition pertains to anti-capitalist anxieties (fear of large international financial takeovers). The Right, usually comprised of xenophobes (fearful of what is foreign) worry about the erosion of nationalistic identity. The antonyms xenophobe and xenophile are of the 20th century origin, with xenophobe preceding xenophile by around two decades. Does this suggest that love eventually replaces fear?
