Germophilia

Germophilia: noun. The rather masochistic love of germs and/or Germans. Though not too typical nowadays, germophilia used to be “the rage” in Shakespeare’s Britain and it was very common for the aristocracy to host giant parties during which contests were held to see who could get sickest in a given amount of time. The sickest person was then given a prize of one thousand pounds, which went back to the organisers immediately after the winner’s death. As this sporting event killed all those who took part in the world championship held in Bhutan in 1902, germophiliacal contests became passé and they were even taken off the Olympic games, despite the popularity they had reached four years before that in Greece, when all of the contestants contracted diarrhoea and swam out of the stadium at the massive applause of thousands of spectators.