Paraskevidekatriaphobia

Today is Friday the 13th. Well, it was when I wrote this. If you are reading this on some other day, the information remains valid.

I decided to look a little deeper into this date and the prevailing superstitions that surround it. I was delighted to discover that it is not merely counted as a day of bad luck. There's an actual documented phobia attached to it.

Paraskevidekatriaphobia

The fear of Friday the 13th. Honestly, the definition is easier to digest than the medical term, though this is to be expected of a profession that seems dedicated to scary nomenclature.

In the early 1990s, Dr. Donald Dossey, a psychotherapist and folklore specialist who founded the Stress Management Centre and Phobia Institute (SMCPI) in Asheville, North Carolina, took a special interest in this particular phobia. He developed the term, often joking that learning to pronounce it was the first step in overcoming this irrational fear.

The SMCPI estimated that approximately 21 million people in the US suffered from Paraskevidekatriaphobia, making it the most wide-spread phobia in the country.

While many people believe that Paraskevidekatriaphobia started in the Middle Ages, it is, in fact, not nearly that old. It originated from two much older superstitions: the fear of Friday, which was considered unlucky way back then; and the fear of the number 13, which was derived from the Last Supper. The two fears combined in Western culture in the late 19th or early 20th century, giving mental health professionals something interesting to treat, and--eventually--Dr. Dossey a reason to come up with a name that is almost as intimidating as the phobia it labels.

To pare it down, the word comes from Greek:

• paraskeví — Friday

• dekatreis — thirteen

• phobos — fear

  
  

Put them together and you get paraskevidekatriaphobia. It's really quite simple, isn't it?

And if that weren’t enough linguistic fun, Dr. Dossey also coined its cousin term:

Friggatriskaidekaphobia

This version blends the Norse goddess Frigg (whose name gave us Friday) with the Greek triskaideka (“thirteen”) and phobia (“fear”). In other words, the same superstition—just wearing a slightly different linguistic costume.

Which raises a delightful question for the Temple of Linguistic Nerdery:

If someone truly suffers from paraskevidekatriaphobia, do they also suffer from the terror of trying to pronounce it?

Because that seems like a perfectly reasonable fear.