About

Thalassophobia is an extreme fear of the ocean which is often accompanied megalohydrothalassophobia, the fear of large things in the water. Online, thalassophobia is typically associated with illustrated depictions of large sea creatures and photographs illustrating the vastness of the sea.

Origin

Thalassophobia is a portmanteau of "thalass" ("sea" in Greek) and "phobia" ("fear" in Greek). The earliest known use of the term in the context of fan art was in the title of a sea monster illustration by Deviantartist spyroteknik,^[1] originally uploaded to the site on June 25th, 2003 (shown below).

Spread

On January 27th, 2005, Deviantartist Selfishmuse^[2] uploaded an image of a large sea creature floating behind a woman in a boat titled "Thalassophobia" (shown below).

On June 16th, 2010, BuzzFeed^[3] published a listicle of thalassophobia triggering images titled "What Lurks Beneath The Waves," gathering more than 220,000 views over the next five years (shown below).

On June 3rd, 2013, the /r/thalassophobia^[4] subreddit was created for discussions and media related to the phobia. On May 15th, 2014, BuzzFeed^[5] published a compilation of phobia-triggering images, including a photograph of a sunken boat for thalassophobia (shown below). On May 15th, 2015, the /v/thalassophobia^[6] subverse was created on Voat.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References