paraskevadekatriaphobia
fear of Friday the 13th
TRANSLATION
paraskevidekatriaphobia = Angst vor Freitag der 13. (triskaidekaphobia = Angst vor der Zahl Dreizehn)
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
PARASKEVIDEKATRIAPHOBIA
"Is Friday the 13th Bad for Your Health?" is the title of a study published in the British Medical Journal in 1993. The study aimed to map the relation between health, behaviour, and superstition surrounding Friday 13th. Its authors compared the ratio of traffic volume to the number of automobile accidents on two different days, Friday the 6th and Friday the 13th, over a period of years.
Incredibly, they found that in the UK region sampled, while consistently fewer people chose to drive their cars on Friday the 13th, the number of hospital admissions due to road accidents was significantly higher than on "normal" Friday. Their conclusion: "Friday 13th is unlucky for some. The risk of hospital admission as a result of a transport accident may be increased by as much as 52 percent. Staying at home is recommended."
Victor Robert Farrell
Did you
know?
paraskevidekatriaphobia
noun (medical)
- fear of Friday the 13th
Macmillan Dictionary
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ORIGIN
The word paraskevidekatriaphobia is derived from the Greek words meaning Friday, thirteen, and phobia respectively. It was devised by Dr. Donald Dossey who told his patients "when you learn to pronounce it, you're cured!".
A Friday occurring on the 13th day of any month is considered to be a day of bad luck in English, German and Portuguese-speaking cultures around the globe. Similar superstitions also exist in some other traditions. In Greece and Spain, for example, Tuesday the 13th takes the same role.
Before the 19th century, although both the number 13 and Friday were considered unlucky, there was no link between them. The first documented mention of a "Friday the 13th" occurred in the early 1900s.
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People suffering from fear of the number 13 are called TRISKAIDEKAPHOBES. Some famous ones are:
- Napoleon Bonaparte
- Herbert Hoover
- Mark Twain
- Richard Wagner
- Franklin Roosevelt
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Practice OWAD in a conversation:
"Every year has at least one (and at most three) Friday the 13ths - bad news for sufferers of PARASKEVIDEKATRIAPHOBIA."
