Xenomania

Xenomania is “An obsession with strangers; A pleasure gained from meeting strangers or visiting new cultures.” Xeno- is a prefix based on the Greek word "Xenos", meaning stranger. It also gives us Xenophobia - an intense dislike and/or fear of people from other countries. The term is typically used to describe a fear or dislike of foreigners or of people significantly different from oneself. Nowadays we also have "Xeno-racism" - 'a racism that is not just directed at those with darker skins, from the former colonial territories, but at the newer categories of the displaced, the dispossessed and the uprooted, who are beating at western Europe's doors, the Europe that helped to displace them in the first place.' - A. Sivanandan, Director, Institute of Race Relations


Nowadays 'Xenomania' is better known not as a word from the dictionary but as a one of the UK's leading pop production houses, put together by writer and producer Brian Higgins.