Can’t Tell the Phobias without a Scorecard

No one, to my knowledge, is afraid of Thursday the 13^th or Sunday the 13^th. But when we start contemplating the calendar and fall across today, some folks get way beyond afraid and transcend 'skeered.'

Their terror is so real and so large that having just one poly-syllabic word to describe that fear of Friday the Thirteenth, friggatriskaidekaphobia, isn’t quite enough so we have to have a second word as well, paraskevidekatriaphobia.

I wonder how often either comes up as a word during the National Spelling Bee. I’d ask ESPN since they air it live (because we can stretch the meaning of sport beyond all belief) but they’re working on their own fear, JamelleHillMayTweetAboutTrumpAgainphobia.

Friggatriskaidekaphobia seems to have its root in Frigg, who is/was the Norse goddess of wisdom (and for whom Friday is named) as well as two Greek words, triskaideka, meaning 13, and phobia, meaning fear. 

Paraskevidekatriaphobia is derived from Greek: paraskeví means Friday, and dekatria is another way of saying the number thirteen.

Girl Scouts would have been smart enough to ask for directions.

What other blog gives so much value on the flimsiest of pretenses? And how do we do it at such an everyday low price?  Volume!  We buy directly from the dictionary factory and pass the savings, as well as diphthongs and diacritical marks, still farm-fresh right to you. Helps me avoid Athazagoraphobia.

-bill kenny