The Greek root "-Phil-" originates from the Greek word meaning "love". For example, Philosophy (along with the Greek root "-soph-" meaning "wisdom") is the study of human customs and the significance of life. One of the most common uses of the root "-phil-" is with philias. A philia is the

love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of meanings is that the love o ...

or obsession with a particular thing or subject. The suffix -philia is used to specify the love or obsession with something more specific. It is somewhat antonymic to

-phobia The English suffixes -phobia, -phobic, -phobe (from Greek φόβος ''phobos'', "fear") occur in technical usage in psychiatry to construct words that describe irrational, abnormal, unwarranted, persistent, or disabling fear as a mental diso ...

. Philias can be biological (e. g. Rhizophilia, preference for living on roots), or Chemical (e. g. Chromophilous, materials that stain easily), or can be a hobby/liking (e. g. Icthyophilia, love for fish). ''Philia'' () as a Greek word for love refers to brotherly love, including

friendship Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an "acquaintance" or an "association", such as a classmate, neighbor, coworker, or colleague. In some cultures, the concept o ...

and affection. This contrasts to the Greek terms

Eros In Greek mythology, Eros (, ; grc, Ἔρως, Érōs, Love, Desire) is the Greek god of love and sex. His Roman counterpart was Cupid ("desire").''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. In the ear ...

, or

sexual Sex is the biological distinction of an organism between male and female. Sex or SEX may also refer to: Biology and behaviour *Animal sexual behaviour **Copulation (zoology) **Human sexual activity **Non-penetrative sex, or sexual outercourse ** ...

romantic love Romance or romantic love is a feeling of love for, or a strong attraction towards another person, and the courtship behaviors undertaken by an individual to express those overall feelings and resultant emotions. The ''Wiley Blackwell Ency ...

, and

agape In Christianity, agape (; ) is "the highest form of love, charity" and "the love of God for man and of man for God". This is in contrast to philia, brotherly love, or philautia, self-love, as it embraces a deep and profound sacrificial love ...

, or detached, spiritual love. However, English usage differs in some cases from the eytmological use, and several of these words refer in English not to brotherly love but to sexual attraction. The suffix -phile (or, in a few cases, -philiac) applies to someone who has one of these philia. It is the antonym of

-phobic The English suffixes -phobia, -phobic, -phobe (from Greek φόβος ''phobos'', "fear") occur in technical usage in psychiatry to construct words that describe irrational, abnormal, unwarranted, persistent, or disabling fear as a mental diso ...

. Phil- (philo-) may also be used as a prefix with a similar meaning.

Biology

* Acidophilia - preference of acidic conditions. * Alkaliphilia - preference of alkaline environments * Anthophilia - attraction to flowers * Anthropophile - attracted to humans (e.g., parasites) * Anemophily: a form of pollination whereby pollen is distributed by wind * Capnophile: microorganism that thrives in the presence of high concentrations of

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is trans ...

* Cryophilia - preference for cold environments, climates, objects and low temperatures; e.g., ''

Protea cryophila ''Protea cryophila'', the snowball sugarbush, snow protea, or snowball protea, is a flowering shrub of the genus ''Protea''. The plant is endemic to the Cederberg. The shrub is dense, wooded and grows in diameter and blooms from January to Apr ...

'' (Snow Protea) *

Dacryphilia Dacryphilia (also known as dacrylagnia) is a form of paraphilia in which one is aroused by tears or sobbing. The term comes from the Greek words meaning "tears", and meaning "love". Not much research has been conducted on dacryphilia, and the ...

: attraction to tears * Dendrophilia - preference of trees or other plants *

Entomophilous Entomophily or insect pollination is a form of pollination whereby pollen of plants, especially but not only of flowering plants, is distributed by insects. Flowers pollinated by insects typically advertise themselves with bright colours, some ...

: adapted for pollination by insects *

Extremophilia An extremophile (from Latin ' meaning "extreme" and Greek ' () meaning "love") is an organism that is able to live (or in some cases thrive) in extreme environments, i.e. environments that make survival challenging such as due to extreme temper ...

- preference of living extremal conditions for some microorganisms *

Geophilia Geophilic means soil loving or preferring the soil. This term is usually used when referring to certain types of fungi or molds that live in the soil. Many of these organisms are usually recovered from the soil but occasionally infect humans and ...

- preferring to organisms that prefer the soil *

Halophilia The halophiles, named after the Greek word for "salt-loving", are extremophiles that thrive in high salt concentrations. While most halophiles are classified into the domain Archaea, there are also bacterial halophiles and some eukaryotic species, ...

- attraction to salt or salt-water * Heliophilia - attraction to sunlight *

Hydrophilia A hydrophile is a molecule or other molecular entity that is intermolecular force, attracted to water molecules and tends to be dissolution (chemistry), dissolved by water.Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon'' Oxford: Clar ...

: attraction to water * Hyperthermophilia - organisms that thrive in extremely hot environments * Limnophilia - preference of ponds or marshes * Lithophilia - preference or affinity to stones * Mesophilia - preference of moderate temperatures in microorganisms * Microaerophilia - organisms that can tolerate or require environments containing low levels of oxygen *

Myrmecophilia Myrmecophily ( , ) is the term applied to positive interspecies associations between ants and a variety of other organisms, such as plants, other arthropods, and fungi. Myrmecophily refers to mutualistic associations with ants, though in its m ...

: love for the ants *Nemophilia: love of the woods and forests * Necrophilia - an attraction to the dead * Neutrophile: organism that thrives in a neutral pH environment * Nyctophilia: an attraction to darkness or night; finding relaxation or comfort in the darkness. Preferring nighttime activities to daytime activities. *Ombrophilia - affinity to large amounts of rainfall * Petrophilia - preference of living or spending time in rocky areas * Photophilia - preference of living or spending time in lighted conditions * Pluviophilia - affinity to rain *

Psammophile A psammophile is a plant or animal that prefers or thrives in sandy areas. Plant psammophiles are also known as psammophytes. They thrive in places such as the Arabian Peninsula and the Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , ...

- a plant loving sandy areas * Psychrophilia - preference of cold temperatures * Rheophilia: preference of living in running water * Sciaphilia - preference of living in shady or dark areas (as opposed to photophilia) * Thermophilia: love of high temperatures; thriving in high temperatures (e.g. microbes) *Tropophilia - preference of seasonal extremes of climate *

Trichophilia Hair fetishism, also known as hair partialism and trichophilia, is a partialism in which a person sees hair most commonly, head hair as particularly erotic and sexually arousing. Arousal may occur from seeing or touching hair, whether head hai ...

: an attraction to hair or fur * Vorarephilia: sexual attraction to being eaten by or eating humans * Xenophilia: an affection for unknown, foreign objects, or people. *Xerophilia: love of living or spending time in very dry conditions *Xylophilia: love of wood *

Zoophily Zoophily, or zoogamy, is a form of pollination whereby pollen is transferred by animals, usually by invertebrates but in some cases vertebrates, particularly birds and bats, but also by other animals. Zoophilous species frequently have evolved ...

: a form of pollination whereby pollen is distributed by animals

Chemistry and physics

Electrophile In chemistry, an electrophile is a chemical species that forms bonds with nucleophiles by accepting an electron pair. Because electrophiles accept electrons, they are Lewis acids. Most electrophiles are positively charged, have an atom that carrie ...

: a chemical species that forms bonds with nucleophiles by accepting a pair of electrons *

Hydrophilic A hydrophile is a molecule or other molecular entity that is attracted to water molecules and tends to be dissolved by water.Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon'' Oxford: Clarendon Press. In contrast, hydrophobes are ...

: (of a substance) having a tendency to interact with or be dissolved by water and other polar substances *

Lipophilic Lipophilicity (from Greek λίπος "fat" and φίλος "friendly"), refers to the ability of a chemical compound to dissolve in fats, oils, lipids, and non-polar solvents such as hexane or toluene. Such non-polar solvents are themselves lipo ...

: solubility or solvability of a substance with lipids *

: (of a substance) in microfluidics, enriching on channel walls instead of in the middle of the channels (e.g. air bubbles) * Nucleophile: a chemical species that donates an electron pair to form a chemical bond. Antonym: electrophile

Hobbies

Audiophilia An audiophile is a person who is enthusiastic about high-fidelity sound reproduction. An audiophile seeks to reproduce the sound of a piece of recorded music or a live musical performance, typically inside closed headphones, In-ear monitors, open ...

: love of high-fidelity sound reproduction * Arctophilia: love of

teddy bear A teddy bear is a stuffed toy in the form of a bear. Developed apparently simultaneously by toymakers Morris Michtom in the U.S. and Richard Steiff under his aunt Margarete Steiff's company in Germany in the early 20th century, the teddy b ...

s; especially, an interest in collecting teddy bears * Bibliophilia: love of books * Cartophilia: love of

map A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes. Many maps are static, fixed to paper or some other durable medium, while others are dynamic or interactive. Although ...

s *

Cinephilia Cinephilia (; also cinemaphilia or filmophilia) is the term used to refer to a passionate interest in films, film theory, and film criticism. The term is a portmanteau of the words cinema and philia, one of the four ancient Greek words for love. ...

: love of cinema and film * Philately: the study of stamps and postal history and other related items * Glossophilia: love of languages (synonym for

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

) * Logophilia: love of words – logophiles may be interested in word games, such as crosswords, or Scrabble, and in the extreme, derive enjoyment from reading things commonly given less notice, such as labels * Metrophilia: love of the metro rail or subway systems * Neophilia: love of the latest novelties and trends * * Oenophilia: love of wine * Ornithophilia: love of birds * Taphophilia: love of graves, cemeteries and funerals * Technophilia: love of technology *

Videophile A videophile (literally, "one who loves sight") is one who is concerned with achieving high-quality results in the recording and playback of movies, TV programs, etc. Criteria Similar to audiophile values, videophile values may be applied at all ...

: person who is concerned with achieving high-quality results in the recording and playback of movies, TV programs, etc.

National or ethnic

Anglophile An Anglophile is a person who admires or loves England, its people, its culture, its language, and/or its various accents. Etymology The word is derived from the Latin word ''Anglii'' and Ancient Greek word φίλος ''philos'', meaning "frien ...

: a non-English person who is extremely fond of all things

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. Antonym: Anglophobe * Australophile: a fan of Australian culture * Austrophile: a fan of Austrian culture *Celtophile: a fan of Celtic culture * Europhile: a person who wants to increase cooperation between governments within the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

. Antonym: Eurosceptic * Fennophile: a fan of Finnish culture *

Francophile A Francophile, also known as Gallophile, is a person who has a strong affinity towards any or all of the French language, French history, French culture and/or French people. That affinity may include France itself or its history, language, cuisin ...

or Gallophile: a fan of French culture. Antonym:

Francophobe Anti-French sentiment (Francophobia or Gallophobia) is fear or antagonism of France, the French people, French culture, the French government or the Francophonie (set of political entities that use French as an official language or whose French-s ...

Germanophile A Germanophile, Teutonophile, or Teutophile is a person who is fond of German culture, German people and Germany in general, or who exhibits German patriotism in spite of not being either an ethnic German or a German citizen. The love of the ''Ge ...

or Teutophile: a fan of German culture. Antonyms: Germanophobe and teutophobia * Hellenophile: a fan of Greek culture (i.e. someone prone to philhellenism) * Hibernophile: a lover of

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Irish culture The culture of Ireland includes language, literature, music, art, folklore, cuisine, and sport associated with Ireland and the Irish people. For most of its recorded history, Irish culture has been primarily Gaelic (see Gaelic Ireland). It has ...

*Hispanophile: a lover of Spanish (Spain) culture and people * Indophile: a fan of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

* Italophile: a fan of

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. Antonym: Italophobia *

Japanophile Japanophilia is the philia of Japanese culture, people and history. In Japanese, the term for Japanophile is , with "" equivalent to the English prefix 'pro-' and "", meaning "Japan" (as in the word for Japan ). The term was first used as earl ...

: a non-Japanese person with a strong interest in Japan or Japanese culture. Antonym: Japanophobe * Judeophile: a lover of

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

or Jewish culture. Antonyms: Judeophobe and antisemite * Kartvelophile: an interest for Georgian culture * Negrophilia: a term used in the 1920s and 30s for the interest in Europe for African and African-American culture *

Russophilia Russophilia (literally love of Russia or Russians) is admiration and fondness of Russia (including the era of the Soviet Union and/or the Russian Empire), Russian history and Russian culture. The antonym is Russophobia. In the 19th Century, ...

: love of Russia and Russians. Antonym: Russophobe * Sinophile: a non-Chinese person with a strong interest in China or

Chinese culture Chinese culture () is one of the world's oldest cultures, originating thousands of years ago. The culture prevails across a large geographical region in East Asia and is extremely diverse and varying, with customs and traditions varying grea ...

. Antonym: Sinophobe * Slavophile: a fan of Slavic culture * Suecophile: someone with a great interest in the Swedish language and culture

Sexual paraphilias

List of paraphilias Paraphilias are sexual interests in objects, situations, or individuals that are atypical. The American Psychiatric Association, in its ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fifth Edition'' (DSM), draws a distinction between paraphilias (which ...

Paraphilia Paraphilia (previously known as sexual perversion and sexual deviation) is the experience of intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals. It has also been defined as sexual interest in anything ot ...

(previously known as sexual perversion and sexual deviation) is the experience of intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals. Such attraction may be labeled sexual fetishism.

Other

Biophilia hypothesis The biophilia hypothesis (also called BET) suggests that humans possess an innate tendency to seek connections with nature and other forms of life. Edward O. Wilson introduced and popularized the hypothesis in his book, ''Biophilia'' (1984). He d ...

Erotophilia Erotophilia is a personality trait which assesses an individual's disposition to respond to sexual cues in either a positive or negative manner. It is measured on a continuous scale, ranging from '' erotophobia'' to ''erotophilia''.Fisher, W. A., B ...

: a personality trait which assesses an individual's disposition to respond to sexual cues *

Haemophilia Haemophilia, or hemophilia (), is a mostly inherited genetic disorder that impairs the body's ability to make blood clots, a process needed to stop bleeding. This results in people bleeding for a longer time after an injury, easy bruising, ...

: a disease relating to blood clotting *

Homophile Terms used to describe homosexuality have gone through many changes since the emergence of the first terms in the mid-19th century. In English, some terms in widespread use have been sodomite, Achillean, Sapphic, Uranian, homophile, lesbian, g ...

: a term used to refer to

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

people or those who supported

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

, prior to

gay liberation The gay liberation movement was a social and political movement of the late 1960s through the mid-1980s that urged lesbians and gay men to engage in radical direct action, and to counter societal shame with gay pride.Hoffman, 2007, pp.xi-xiii ...

and other

LGBT social movements Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movements are social movements that advocate for LGBT people in society. Some focus on equal rights, such as the ongoing movement for same-sex marriage, while others focus on liberation, as in the ...

. It was proposed as an alternative to homosexual, that would have a more positive connotation, before the word "gay" became dedicated for this purpose * Pluviophile: love of the rain * Retrophilia: love of things of the past * Theophilia: love of a god * Topophilia: a strong sense of place, which often becomes mixed with the sense of cultural identity among certain people and a love of certain aspects of such a place

Prefix ''phil-''

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

* * Philanderer * Philandry * Philanthropy * Philately * Philhellenism: the love of Greek culture (this may also be called hellenophilia) * Philogyny *

Philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

* Philomath * Philosophy * Phillumenism