Would you think of words that you don't know, ending with "phile" as something sexual (or negative)?

When I hear "audiophile", I truly never think about licking the banana-plugs, so nope.
There are also some popular YT channels like Computerphile and Numberphile
- to be frank, "Numberwang" is more titillating than "Numberphile"
  
  That’s Numberwang!
- Cinephile is another common term.
- Yeah another user mentioned those two too. The interesting part is that they have used a mixture of english and greek. For example Numberphile uses the enlish word "number" instead of the proper Arithmophile. I wonder if this is to make it easier to understand
  
  The reason that a linguist would give is that -phile has become a somewhat productive suffix in English, so it is not constrained to Greek roots.

No, because I know what the suffix means.
- But this is my question. The suffix means "to like" but this can be a good and a bad thing, depending on what the prefix is, like mentioned in the description. If you did not recognize the prefix would the average user assume the suffix to be sexual or negatively charged?
  
  Well, I don't think there is anything inherently sexual about the suffix, so no. But can't speak for the average user.
  
  I dunno. Does this sound sexual to you?
  Barantaphile

Just remember that the average Lemmy user is a bit more literate than the average kneejerk reaction idiot. Id say theres nothing wrong with it but you can probably come up with something a little more catchy and clever if you put your mind to it.
- I think you are right. I might go with a mixture of English and Greek like an other user mentioned (computerphile, numberphile, bookphile) even though they are not proper.
  
  I honestly think Bibliophile is used commonly enough that most people would understand it. Not quite as much as Audiophile, but you do hear it. It also sounds, info, much better than Bookphile.

Phile is pretty much the best known greek suffix out there. It gets tagged onto most hobbies, so you don't have to worry about it being defaulted to sexual matters. Tbh, most of the paraphilias are so obscure that nobody without an interest in the field is going to know them the way -phobias are. I mean, can you name the other chronophilias besides pedophilia? Did you even know that there were others? Most people really only know one or two sexual-philias at most, where they'll have heard of a dozen or so non sexual ones.
But, just tacking phile or philia onto a word can be clunky, so you might end up with it not working well anyway.
- Yeah I shared a link in an other comment about this. There seem to be quite a lot, and most of them end with "philia". This is also my main concern. That most will have heard the suffix used with one of those
  https://lemmy.world/comment/8887844

“Audiophile” has never before brought to mind the concept of “pedophile”.
In fact, note the way we shorten the word: “pedo”.
I wouldn't worry about it. But I’m autistic, so the way my brain processes these words might be different than an NT’s brain.
Mostly I think it’s only going to be a problem for people who are looking for trouble, and you can’t really avoid problems with those people.

There is audiophile. It refers to someone who is obsessed about audio quality.
- Theres also Audiophilic content too, and yet if you say you're an audiophile no one mistakes it to mean you listen to audio porn. Context is going to be king with that suffix I wager.

Only dumb people will
- That's a large group though.
  
  Yeah but fuck em

It really depends. I think -phile tends to make me think non-sexual, and -philia makes me think sexual. Probably just because of how the words are used.
People tend to be willing to describe themselves as an x-phile, but psychological or legal literature are more likely to say something like "a person with x-philia" or "displaying traits of x-philia".
- I suspect the part with descriptions in literature is due to it being in a 3rd person. There seems to be a recent-ish trend though for people to refer to themselves in a 'person who has X' sense though to separate the person from the condition so maybe that changes.
  
  Person First language. "A person with autism" means we use the word for the diagnosis, rather than the word for a diagnosed person (e.g., "autist"? Was that ever a real word?).

I assume the people who automatically think of something negative or sexual when hearing the word „phile“ are the same people you don’t want to associate with in the first place. Their opinion is worthless and can be ignored. Don’t waste your time with other people’s ignorance.
- I'd agree with you, but if it is for the purpose of educating people, I wouldn't want to scare them away because they would feel its a risky click when linked to...
  
  Yeah, I feel you. Maybe there is a case to be made here. But I think those who are ignorant choose to be so and it’s a lost cause. You probably shouldn’t listen to me. I think it’s great of you to consider something like this.
  
  You could do some kind of A/B testing. Use some “phile” name in half your links, some more semantophobic name in the other half, and see if the phile thing results in less clickthrough.

I'd simply guess "lover, liker, fond of", without any obligatory sexual connotation. Even if I don't recognise the first part, as in... say, "wugphile" ("wug" is just a nonsense placeholder).
- If you created a page called "Wugphile" I would totally think it was about linguistics :D
  
  Well, considering the type of website that I'd create, that would be spot on. Perhaps with some sort of visual pun between "wugphile" and "wug file", and abstract art for Chomsky's "colourless green ideas sleep furiously".

I have some interest in chemistry and after a while when I hear "phile" my first thought is "they are attracted to water".
- Hydrophilic!
- A nucleophile happens by and notices your electrophile. Your electrophile is attracted to their greater electron density and ditches you, the leaving group, for them. Was this SN1 or SN2?
- So.. you are a chemophile!! See what I mean? It kind of sounds negative without it being the case.
  
  That part where it sounds negative is happening in your own head.
  I think if you step back and evaluate this thread, you’ll find we’re all telling you it’s a non-problem.
  My advice is to not worry about it and move on.
  And, long shot, maybe take a look at your social surroundings and see if you’ve been in a group of pathological offense-takers. Hanging out with these types can result in your seeing the world as a minefield of unintended social insult.
  It really seems to me like the thing you’re worried about is a non-issue.
  
  i like water

I don't know if this is international but it's a common joke in British media to use this as a bit of a joke, for example a geeky character might say that they're a bibliophile, and the dumb character will make it sexual.
- Random dude I was talking to mentioned he was a “heliophile” mid-conversation about weather. Dude thought he was so smart, cuz apparently no one ever knows what he means when he uses that term. He joked about people sort of recoiling at the sound of the word.
  Anyway, I’d heard of helio and phile…. So he likes the sun. Uh, cool.
  
  What a weird guy

Not necessarily, it depends on whether I recognize the first part of the word. For example, I dont immediately think "audiophile," is negative or sexual in nature.

There's only two words with the 'phile' ending that is sexual that I can think of. But audiophile, videophile, and a host of others use that ending in the context of a preference or attraction: nemophile has nothing to do with animated fish, for instance. Hemophilia is another example of a commonplace word that is definitely not sexual.
I want to think the average person knows there's no sex in halophilia, but we could be overestimating.
- I'm absolutely halophile, horny for Cortana
- You may be right, but it is interesting that most sexual interests have a "-philia" name although they are described as paraphilias https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_paraphilias
  
  Paraphilias are described just as atypical sexual interests, so by the looks pretty much anything outside of the "standard missionary married male and female lights off until male cums", which seems pretty specific and probably should be described as paraphilia too. Tradphilia? Xd

- Definitely the vibe I got from this guy using the term heliophile and then after he asked if I knew what it was…. Explained it anyway, and how people always recoil at the use of the word.
  I was just thinking, maybe they’re recoiling from your personality bro.

Nah it's okay. Anglophile doesn't mean you want to bang me.
- Unless..?
  
  Unless you’re acute anglo

Audiophile
- "one who pays too much for speaker cables"
  
  A true audiophile can tell the difference between when its wound clockwise vs anticlockwise. /s
  
  also see: rube.
  
  I always refer to myself as “a bit of an audiophile” because I went and researched a ton to get a particular amp and not your typical Sony speakers/ soundbar. And I just have particular interest in nice sound reproduction.
  But my speaker cables are just about as cheap as you can get.
- Botanophile... my question is, what the average user who does not know the word or can guess it, will think of it. There is not doubt that it is not a sexual suffix, but if the reader does not recognize it, would they think it was?
  
  That you like IRC bots.
  
  Just go with Botanyphile. With perhaps a very brief explanation in the Forward.

Nah, I just assume it's someone that really likes something. Kind of like saying food-porn but even less sexual. Like Audiophile is common parlance that evokes no sexual meaning.

Nope.

I would understand that it just means a connoisseur of something, but you could always change the spelling to "file" to make it more digital-y and even less associated with problematic obsessions.
- This is actually interesting! I wanted to use "files" to start with, like "Flower-Files" but the domain was taken. So i thought flowerphiles could be a fun twist. The true word would be Anthophile though, (or Botanophile for plants) and people would not necessarilly know this (this is btw an example and not the actual wordplay that I am working on atm)
  
  Could also just double-domain it, anthophile.com && ILikeFlowers.com or something like that. Is there a “flowers” TLD? ILike.flowers

Is it “furryphile”? Then yeah, they’ll think it’s sexual.

No. There's plenty of common examples of that suffix being used in a non-sexual non-negative context. For example: someone who enjoys reading books is called a bibliophile, there's also the youtube channels Computerphile and Numberphile.
- yeah I used the bibliophile example in my text above. ,Computerphile and Numberphile, are mixed words of english/greek. It is actually interesting, for examble, that they have used Numberphile instead of Arithmophile, wich would be the actual word. My concern is when people don't recognize the prefix and only recognize the suffix, if that will be different

If I didn't know the meaning, I would just be confused about seeing the words since I wouldn't know what they meant.

When I was in a college level genetic biology class, we were discussing the early experiments using fruit flies. Their scientific name being Drosophila melanogaster; a species of fly in the family Drosophilidae. Pronounced "drow-sof-ila." Well I had only ever read it, so when I raised my hand to ask a question, I didn't understand why everyone was snickering as I pronounced it "draw-so-filia."
Here I was trying to talk about genetics and instead I was making public a secret fly kink

Most people here say no. I'm not so sure, however.

Hello. Yes stupid people do this and I ignore them or laugh at them for being stupid.

No, because I'm no uncultured swine.

I don't but I feel like some other people might.

No, but I'm surprised you didn't go with the suffix mania.