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.

calciphile (s) (noun), calciphiles (pl)
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.
calciphily (s) (noun) (no pl)
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.
callcynophile, callcynophilist (s) (noun); callcynophiles; callcynophilists (pl)
A collector of dog collars: Brad had the strangest hobby of accumulating many neck bands of dogs and his parents called him a callcynophilist!
callinebephile (s) (noun), callinebephiles (pl)
Anyone who has a love for using nibs or quill pens as tools for producing artistic and enhancing hand-written documents.
callinebephilist (s) (noun), callinebephilists (pl)
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.
campanophile, campnophilist (s) (noun); campanophiles; campnophilists (pl)
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.
canophile, canophilist (s) (noun); canophiles; canophilists (pl)
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.
capsulaphile, capsulaphilist (s) (noun); capsulaphiles; capsulaphilists (pl)
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
cartophile, cartophilist (s) (noun); cartophiles; cartophilists (pl)
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.
castanophile, castanophilist (s) (noun); castanophiles; castanophilists (pl)
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.
Quiz button #1 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.