; In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of "Word for the Day". ERGOPHOBIA [ur goh FOh bee uh]hear it pronounced noun Literally, a hatred or terror of work. In 1905 in the British Medical Journal the word was coined describing "...it often pays better to idle and loaf about than to work, and the consequence is that a new disease has been engendered. which I (W.D. Spanton) have termed ergophobia"Erg" is a unit of work, Greek ergon plus the familiar suffix phobia.