bananaphobia
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Etymology: From banana + -phobia.
Senses: examples: text: […]in bed by 6:45 each evening and were even forbidden to eat certain foods, such as bananas, until they were twelve. This had the predictable result of inducing a certain amount of bananaphobia as the twelfth birthday approached.
ref: 1985, Time, page 76:
text: Somewhere in my past, no doubt, I had a bad experience with lunch rooms, or over-ripe bananas. A psychiatrist would have a term of some sort for the banana-phobia, but this is just one of those things I’ll never overcome.[…]If my banana-phobia is a problem for me, than^([sic]) the parking-as-close-as-possible addict has some real fears to overcome.
ref: 1987 March 31, Tom Wright, “Wright Angles”, in Lassen County Times, volume 9, number 24, Susanville, Calif., page 4:
text: It was not until several months ago that I could even buy bananas for my family again. Maybe one day I’ll even be able to eat one. One day. But not yet. I’m still not over my “bananaphobia.”
ref: 1994 February 23, Lisa Palmarin, “A Bad Case of Arachnophobia”, in Nanaimo Daily Free Press, volume 119, number 272, page 13:
text: Bananaphobia, air-typing and other lunchtime revelations[…]I knew that she at least harbored a strange hatred of bananas, a neurosis that I’d recently discovered when she was driven from my office, shivering in disgust, by a banana sitting on my desk.
ref: 2001 November 21, Ezra Dyer, “Ezra”, in The Improper Bostonian, volume X, number 23, page 14:
text: Bananas win the award for “fruit you are least likely to see Elaine eating.” I can’t tell you why — it might be a texture thing. But after hearing a couple of people talk about various banana pudding recipes they had seen lately (including a Food Network chef preparing one similar to this recipe, except using Chessman shortbread cookies), I decided to dive right in, bananaphobia and all!
ref: 2003 August 20, Elaine Magee, “Banana pudding recipe peels away fat, calories”, in St. Louis Post-Dispatch, volume 125, number 232, page L4:
text: Boone had one client who was trained to eat a “low carb” diet. “I had to convince her that eating a banana was not a bad thing,” Boone said. For those with banana-phobias, or the rest of us who simply need an update, here is the latest information on five of our favorite foods.
ref: 2007 February 25, Brenda McHugh, “Five favorite foods — Are they healthy or harmful?”, in The Palm Beach Post, volume 72, number 10, page 4:
text: As Jones’s “bananaphobia” ripened, she’s taken measures to accommodate it. At grocery stores she detours around the banana displays.
ref: 2008, “Bananaphobia: The yellow fruit has no ap-peel”, in People:
text: She may fear bananas, but Allison Jones is not yellow about sharing her phobia with the world. Jones, 36, of Hanover, who suffers from bananaphobia, was featured in a People magazine article Sept. 8 about different types of phobias.[…]But Jones said she’s never sought help for her bananaphobia.
ref: 2008 September 12, Brock Parker, “Bananaphobia brings her fame”, in The York Dispatch, volume 133, edition 180, York, Pa., pages A1 and A9:
text: […]the early 1700’s, it was noted that nearly every ship that disappeared at sea was carrying a cargo of bananas. Of course the fact that they were sailing from tropical climes might have biased the outcome! Bananaphobia rules !
ref: 2009, Geoffrey Carpentier, Antarctica, First Journey: The Traveller’s Resource Guide, Hidden Brook Press, →ISBN, page 333:
text: He just sits up in his treetop where he’ll whimper and he’ll pout, as he has bananaphobia; bananas freak him out.
ref: 2010, Kenn Nesbitt, “Banana Dan”, in The Tighty Whitey Spider and More Wacky Animal Poems I Totally Made Up, Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, page 51:
text: The hosts, Frankie and Danger Boy, were talking about people who suffered from bananaphobia—the intense fear of bananas.
ref: 2011, Richard Paul Evans, “The Morning After”, in Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25, Simon Pulse/Mercury Ink, →ISBN, page 22:
text: Jim suffers from bananaphobia, an irrational fear of the bendy, yellow fruit!
ref: 2012, Nuts, page 22:
text: During my time, I have worked with everyone from Olympic athletes to a guy that suffered from Bananaphobia (a fear of bananas)!
ref: 2013, Patrick Hamilton Walsh, The Backpacker Who Sold His Supercar, page 23:
text: HAVING confessed my arachnophobia in these pages, I’ve received what could be a life-changing offer. Would I, read an email, like to attend a “spider courage” workshop and have my fears hypnotised away? Just one session and I’d be cured forever. On forums, enthusiasts rave about hypnotherapy’s effects on everything from anxiety to a fear of heights to bananaphobia.
ref: 2018 June 25, Alice-Azania Jarvis, “‘Spider courage’ is great in theory...”, in Evening Standard, page 17:
text: ‘And for the record, yes, of course my bananaphobia is real. Why would I lie?’ Erin shuddered. My sister really did have no weaknesses except a weird, crippling fear of bananas. We weren’t allowed them in the house and she avoided them in the supermarket too.
ref: 2021, Beth Garrod, Sister Switch, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN:
glosses: Fear, hate, or dislike of bananas.