| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. |
A Practical and Authoritative Guide to Contemporary English. 1996.
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3. Word Choice: New Uses, Common Confusion, and Constraints
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| § 63. claustrophobic |
| You may feel claustrophobic in that cubicle, but is the cubicle therefore claustropbic as well? Clinically speaking, claustrophobic refers to an abnormal tendency to feel terror in closed spaces. But, like other terms used to describe psychological conditions (schizophrenic and narcissism, for example), claustrophobic has been applied more loosely in the general usage of our language over time. At first it referred to any kind of temporary feeling of being closed in or unable to escape (Riding on trains makes me feel claustrophobic). Then it became common to use it to refer to any kind of space that might make a person feel such a sensation (The staff members are jammed into a nest of claustrophobic offices). Seventy-four percent of the Usage Panel finds this latter usage unacceptable, implying that claustrophobic should be used only to describe a psychological state. Nevertheless, this usage is well established, and it follows a general tendency to combine adjectives with nouns according to a progressively looser interpretation of the relationship between the two. For example, the phrase topless swimsuit came to be followed by topless dancers, which led in turn to topless bars, topless districts, and topless ordinances. By the same token, a room that makes you feel a certain way may be described as sad or cheerful without objection, and there seems to be no reason for drawing the line at calling it claustrophobic. | 1 |
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| The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. Copyright © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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