LEND ME YOUR EAR: `HOMOPHONE': PHONE YOU LEAVE HOME WITHOUT

For a change of pace, we abandon grammar today in favor of more new words.

To list the growing number of recent coinages formed from the Greek suffixes "philos" and "phobos" would occupy more space than we can spare. "Philos" means loving, "phobos" denotes fearing, which may be why these appendages continue to be irresistible. Loving and fearing have always been at the core of all human existence.

From a current issue of The New Yorker, I discovered that the surrender of modern culture to technology has created the term "technopoly." It has also led to the coining of "technophilia" and "technophobia," and related terms. Our well-schooled columnist Ellen Goodman defines "technophiles" as "people trapped by technology that ruins their lives." As the self-appointed chairman of Technophobes, Inc., let me welcome Ms. Goodman to our society. Everyone knows I have the mechanical skill of an idiot, and I too am almost teched out.

Some weeks ago, I received an invitation to join the "Aladdinophiles." To become a member, I'd have had to order the new paperback edition of "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp," a Scholastics publication. According to the publishers, this version, by Carol Garrick, includes watercolor drawings "evoking the Arab world in better days."

Readers of this edition vow that the character of Jafar is reflected in a mirror wholly false. Let us hope one woman's opinion will not result in an organization of Aladdinophobes. Bad cess to this Harvard psychologist for demonizing characters intended to depict only childish mischief and innocent fun.

"Sociophiles" is an expression now used to describe members of the Rich and Famous. In New York City, a passel of teen-age "sociophobes" have established living quarters over a coffee shop, their excuse for togetherness being to protest sociability. "Ideophobes," gleaned from a word-a-day calendar, is defined as distrust of ideas or reason. Perhaps there is a connection between these two creations: Xenophobia is an infectious disease.

How does "anaphobia" strike you? Germaine Greer has written a new book on changes in American culture, in which the fear of old women is designated by reviewer Katha Pollitt as "anaphobia." I thought it was only curmudgeons and young males in need of money who feared old women, but the author widens the score with a gentle tirade against "youthism," averring that our culture is ruled by the young.

"Isms," "ises" or "izes," "manias" and other extensions continue to give competition to the "phile"-and "phobia"-obsessed. The movie world's concentration on pleasing the young has provoked the terms "youthamania" and "youthquake" to protest the glut of youth-oriented movies, though one group of critics has voiced objections because humanitarians are "youthenizing" pets to give to the elderly.

A more recent trend is the sudden resurrection of "macho" in combination with ideas projecting male strength and aggression. Photos, whodunits, and movies featuring prototypes of Arnold Schwarzenegger may have triggered this upsurge, but it was my favorite wordmaster James Kilpatrick who set me straight after I wrote in a recent column that he was the creator of the term "logomachist."

With characteristic patience, Kilpatrick explained that the root "logomachy" has been around since 1560 or "thereabouts," and he wasn't even born until 1570. "Thinking of that," he added, "did I ever tell you that I wrote the plays that have been attributed to a fellow in Stratford, name of Will Shakspere?"

The soul of modesty, my VIP friend implored me not to reveal this truth, but I feel scholars and the media have a Right to Know.

James Jackson Kilpatrick, re-born in 1920, has been writing under his own name since age five. Never mind the plays; his greatest love is writing about language. His books and columns on the art of writing are in the view of many the best in the country. Less well-known, however, is a delightful little treasure entitled "The Ear is Human," published in 1985. Subtitled "A Handbook of Homophones and Other Confusions," the subject matter brings to my mind a relatively new coinage -- "periphonics."

"Periphonics," which caught on quickly and is sure to achieve dictionary status (neither American Heritage, Second College Edition, nor Webster's Ninth includes the term) is a system whereby school children and the college-bound can be registered or register by telephone. An excellent coinage from the Greek "peri" meaning near and "phon" denoting "voice," though the origin probably eludes most of the candidates. For that matter, how many high school or college graduates have ever heard of homophones?

A homophone, as the rest of us know, is a phone you leave home without because it is useless away from home.