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Word of the Day
Tuesday, October 13, 2009triskaidekaphobia \tris-ky-dek-uh-FOH-bee-uh\, noun:
Fear or a phobia concerning the number 13.
Despite NASA's seemingly ingrained case of triskaidekaphobia, which forced managers to impose the bizarre, '13-free' numbering system on its flights, the crew of perhaps the most important Shuttle mission to date clearly were unsure if STS-41C was supposed to be unlucky or not.
-- Ben Evans, Space Shuttle Challenger: Ten Journeys into the Unknown
Triskaidekaphobia is from Greek treiskaideka, triskaideka, thirteen (treis, three + kai, and + deka, ten) + phobos, fear.
Some famous triskaidekaphobes1:
- Napoleon
- Herbert Hoover
- Mark Twain
- Richard Wagner
- Franklin Roosevelt
1. Source: "It's just bad luck that the 13th is so often a Friday," Electronic Telegraph, September 8, 1996
4 comments:
I wish I could use that one in my facebook scrabble game!!!
OH MY GOSH I HAVE triskaidekaphobia!!! Along with being highly superstitious, add me to the list, I'm a complete triskaidekaphobe!
HA! Never knew it had a name. Thanks for the "learn something new each day" goal I also have :o)) (Maybe that's also a little OCD??!)
OK... say that ten times quickly... once maybe.
i am a fan of the number 13 since that is Joel's birth date.
We consider it a lucky number in this house!
Great word and I knew it had to be a fear of something.
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