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Look up xenophilia in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Xenophily means having an affection for unknown objects or human beings. It is the opposite of xenophoby. It is more commonly referred to as xenophilia.

The word is a synthesis from the Greek "xenos" (ξένος) (stranger, unknown, foreign) and "philos" (φίλος) (love, attraction). (Henry Liddell, Robert Scott, Henry Jones, and Roderick McKenzie. A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. pp. 1189, 1939.)

In common usage it can also mean being sexually attracted to a person distinctly different from oneself, such as in coloring, body type, accent, mannerisms, cultural identity or behavior, etc. To some xenophilia includes even relatively subtle distinctions, but more usually it refers to things of a much more extreme dissimilarity.

Xenophilia is a theme found in science fiction, primarily the space opera sub-genre, in which one explores the consequences of love and sexual intercourse between humans and non-humans, including extraterrestrials. For an unusually light-hearted, satirical, and playful look at this, see XXXenophile, a fully X-rated comic book written by Phil Foglio.

In the book Wicked by Gregory Maguire you'll find the term xenophiliac - "Papa would drone on about the generous nature of the Unnamed God, doing his basic xenophiliac slant." This referred to the father of the Wicked Witch of the West who was a Missionary intent on converting human, animal, and all creatures, to his religion.

In the Harry Potter series, Luna Lovegood's father is named Xenophilius Lovegood. He is the editor-in-chief of a magazine called The Quibbler which is comparable to the real life magazine Weekly World News, featuring articles about non-existent creatures considered strange even by magical standards.

• Intercultural competence
• Xenology
• Xenophobia
• Dr. Strangelove

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