December 28, 2007

Way to Ruin “philia” for the Rest of Us

I saw a word that ended with "philia" the other day and got grossed out. Then, I realized that this word had nothing to do with little kids. Pedophilia has ruined a perfectly good suffix. "Philia" - meaning friendship, affection, brotherly love has now been corrupted. But, most people have friendly affection for children, so perhaps we need to give child molestors a new name. It's the suffix "eros" that actually means sexual love. So, shouldn't a child molestor be called a pederos? Of course, that might hurt his chances of getting into the Mexican Hall of Fame too? ...anyone get that one?
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