Definition - A morbid fear of being touched.
Haptein is a Greek word that means “to fasten” (that is, to bring two things together). Some of the ways that this word has come to our language are fairly direct, as with (haptics, the word for "a science concerned with the sense of touch”). Some are somewhat less direct, such as (periapt, which comes from adding peri-, meaning “all around,” to a portion of haptein.
Elliot‘s social anxiety is tangible; he’s tinged with some haphephobia, constantly sidestepping and avoiding contact with strangers.
—Emerson Malone, The Daily Emerald (Eugene, OR), 1 Sept. 2015