credophile

Meaning

Noun

  • One who gets positive pleasure from belief and pain from doubt; one who collects beliefs not for utility but for glitter and for whom, once he or she has embraced a belief, it takes something more than mere disproof to make to let go.
  • One who is especially gullible.

Origin

  • Coined by L. Sprague de Camp from Latin credo + -phile.
  • First known use is in a personal letter from de Camp to James Randi (which is thought to still exist in Randi's archives but is not readily available for study).
  • The word "credophile" and the adjective form "credophilic" were used by L. Sprague de Camp at least as early as 1952 in "Lands Beyond" which he co-authored with Willie Ley (De Camp, L. Sprague & Willie Ley. Lands Beyond. NY: Rinehart, 1952, pp. 268, 272

Modern English dictionary

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