The Snowflake Chronicles

Paraskevidekatriaphobia

Paraskevidekatriaphobia

Paraskevidekatriaphobia is the fear of Friday the 13th. I suppose if you are going to have a word for this fear that is as good or better than any. If one isn’t afraid of Friday the 13th itself, the word Paraskevidekatriaphobia will give one fear of the word. Is there a word for fear of a word? (Please note that isn’t my own question, it was asked on the 5 a.m. news when they were discussing the word Paraskevidekatriaphobia.)

Anyway this has gotten me to thinking about superstitions. If you look in a thesaurus for words to replace superstition two of the words you find is false notion (OK, this is two words, but you get the idea) and fallacy. I have found, in my own life, that superstition sometimes results from negative thinking. If you expect something bad to happen something bad happens.

For those who do have Paraskevidekatriaphobia, then consider this. 13 is the numbers 1 and 3. The root number of 13 is 4 the numbers 1 + 3 = 4. So if 13 is unlucky then why isn’t its components and its root number considered unlucky?

Root Number: There are 9 root numbers and those are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. Any group of numbers added together will result in one of those 9 numbers.

No, I am not a mathematician; I simply have a reservoir of unusual and intriguing knowledge that will do me good only on a game show or in a novel.