Someone who is afraid of heights is known as having acrophobia (pronounced as: ak-ruh-FO-bee-uh). For some who suffer from extreme acrophobia, it could cause shortness of breath, panic attacks, rapid breathing, nausea, vomiting, sweating, dizziness. It's definitely not a pleasant condition to have. They also avoid any activity that involves heights such as, flying, going on a Ferris wheel, skydiving, using an elevator, or even something simple like climbing a ladder.
Let's break down the word.
Acro- is a prefix (added to the beginning of a word) from the Greek term "acron" meaning height or high point . You may know "-phobia" as a common suffix (added to the end of a word) meaning fear. It's from the Greek work "phobos." There are lots of words in the English language ending with "-phobia" depending what your fear is. For example, the word "clinophobia" is a fear of going to bed. There's basically a phobia for everything you can think of.
Tomorrow I'll present a few more interesting phobias and words with this suffix, so don't forget to check back!
Do you have a phobia of any kind?