philo-, phil-, -phile, -philia, -philic, -philous, -phily, -philiac, -philist, -philism
(Greek: love, loving, friendly to, fondness for, attraction to; strong tendency toward, affinity for)
These are just a few of the meanings set up for the etymological meanings of philo- which comes to us from Greek.
In biology, there are many words that use philo-, phil- to mean "thriving in such and such a place or situation; or exhibiting a tendency for a specified condition" for its existence.
Other meanings include: "strongly attracted to; such as, an organism that loves or is strongly attracted to something which is specified".
In psychology and psychiatry, -phile, -philia, etc. use this element as a word termination indicating an abnormal craving or attraction to or an affinity for an object as shown by the word stems to which they are affixed.
A plant that grows in lime rich soil: calcicole: Some calciphiles, like the legumes peas, beans, garlic, and onions, prefer soil that has an abundance in lime.
calciphilic (adjective) (not comparable)
In biology, regarding a plant growing in an environment rich in calcium salts; calcareous: Some calciphilic vegetables include spinach, parsnips, and asparagus.
A condition of a plant thriving in calcium salts: In his biology class, Tom learned about the soil situation of calciphilya being very useful for growing broccoli, Swiss chard, spinach and amaranth, besides tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants.
A collector of dog collars: Brad had the strangest hobby of accumulating many neck bands of dogs and his parents called him a callcynophilist!
Anyone who has a love for using nibs or quill pens as tools for producing artistic and enhancing hand-written documents.
Someone who has a fondness for possessing nibs or quill pens (a nib refers to the point of a quill pen) or the collecting of fountain-pen points used in stylish penmanship.
An individual who has a fondness for collecting bells: Whenever Mrs. Jones, a campnophilist, went on her holidays to foreign countries, she always brought home a bell from each place.
One who has a special fondness for dogs: Linda loved dogs and her neighbours sometimes called up Linda, the canophile, and asked if she could take their dogs for a walk.
capnophilic (adjective), more capnophilic, most capnophilic
Relating to a life form growing best with added carbon dioxide: Capnophilic organisms, like certain kinds of bacteria, thrive very well in the immediate vicinity of a high concentration of carbon dioxide.
A collector of ships in bottles: Mr. Black, a capsulaphilist, had a liking for glass containers enclosing vessels of all kinds, so he had a large collection of them in his library.
carcinophilic (adjective), more carcinophilic, most carcinophilic
Concerning an affinity for cancerous tissue: A carcinophilic property exists in some chemical agents.
carpophile
carpophily
A collector of cigarette cards: In Sam's neighborhood there were many cartophilists, all collecting the little cards that came with their packs of cigarettes. Each card had a text and picture on it and were distributed in sets with different topics.
A person who is fond of gathering up horse chestnuts: Little Susan evidently was a castanophile because she loved collecting the big shiny brown inedible seeds in the fall and playing with them.
You may take a self-scoring quiz over some of the words in this section by just clicking this Philo Quiz #1 link.Related "love, fondness" units: agape-; amat-; vener-; venus.
