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.
In biology, a microorganism growing well in blood or in a media containing blood: Normally there aren't any hemophilies in blood, but sometimes bacteria can be detected in blood tests and must be treated.
A collector of heart shapes: Natasha loved everything that had the form of a heart, and, as a heortephilist, she even made a pillow for herself in the shape of a heart!
hesternophile (s) (noun), hesternophile
A person who is fond of days of long ago: The elderly Mrs. Smith, a hesternophile, sat in her rocking chair enjoying her memories of bygone days.
hesternophilous (adjective), more hesternophilous, most hesternophilous
Regarding the pleasures of bygone days: Mr. Thompson had many hesternophilous stories he told his grandchildren about.
The condition of having pleasurable memories of times past: Old Mr. Green enjoyed times of hesternophily when he enjoyed such sweet moments and recollections of his past.
A person who has a special fondness of horses: Bill, a hippophile, adored his mare and had many books on horse and learned all about the different kinds.
hippophilous (adjective), more hippophilous, most hippophilous
Pertaining to a fondness for or a love of horses: Jack was very devoted to his palomino and usually went with others who had hippophilous interests on rides through the forests.
histophilous (adjective), more histophilous, most histophilous
In biology, relating to life form inside living-host tissue; parasitic: Protozoa, helminths, and ectoparasites and three kinds of histophilous parasites that can cause ailments in an animal.
Someone who cherishes garden gnomes: Audrey's next-door neighbor's garden is full of dwarf figures and he turned out to be a hobophilist many years ago when he started collecting the cute little gnomes.
Someone who is fond of or who loves traveling: After he retired from work, Jim decided to spend lots of time going on trips around the world, and soon he met other hodophiles enjoying their retirement in the same way.
A person who has a fondness for doing the same thing over and over, or for repetitions of certain activities: The elderly Mrs. Black always got up at the same time each day and had the exact same kind of breakfast, and, since she evidently was a homophile, she didn't want to upset her routine with doing things differently.
A collector of figurines: Mrs. Roberts loved little statuettes and had quite a number of them, all placed decoratively in her living room. Her neighbours thought she was a homunculophilist because she bought even more each time she went on vacation!
An individual who collects outdoor signs from inns: Mr. Hathaway was a hostelaphilist who thought that the signs hanging over the entrance doors of the British inns were very interesting and asked the owners if he could have them when the old ones were replaced with new ones.
The attraction or fancy for outdoor signs from inns: Marc always thought that hostelaphily didn't exist until he met Mr. Dawson who had a whole collection of interesting and sometimes very funny old signs from British inns in Britain.
Referring to growth using both water and wind: Hydroanemophily refers to plants, for example, that discharge air-borne spores after getting wet which then produce structures.
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.
