English

Noun

batophobia ‎(uncountable)

1. The fear of high objects or of high objects falling down.
   • 1912, Edwin Ash, Nerves and the Nervous, Brentano's (1912), page 23:

     Batophobia, or fear that high things will fall, is not uncommon, and is matched by the perhaps still more common fear that one may fall off high places should one be perched on an altitude, or on the top of a bridge, or walking along cliffs.

   • 1995, Mir M. Ali & Paul J. Armstrong, Architecture of Tall Buildings, McGraw-Hill (1995), ISBN 9780070125407, page 303:

     Batophobia is the specific fear of high objects, such as tall buildings. Batophobia may be related to acrophobia — the fear of high places, or to anablepophobia — the fear of looking up at high places.

   • 2012, Alexei Barrionuevo, "The World at Its Feet", The New York Times, 3 February 2012:

     That doesn’t seem to be a problem for the wealthy investors who are wiring millions of dollars to New York to snatch up a piece of 157 West 57th Street — what will be New York City’s tallest residential building, with 90 floors overlooking Central Park.

     A bigger worry for these buyers may be acrophobia (fear of heights) or batophobia (fear of being near an object of great height, like a skyscraper).

See also

• acrophobia/altophobia