13 June—Depends are in order today for paraskevidekatriaphobiacs and friggatriskaidekaphobiacs because not only is it 13 June, it’s a Friday. So it’s Friday the Thirteenth. Oh wow and oy vey. You may (should) have read about superstitions and suppositions surrounding the pathologically dreaded day on Friday, 13 September of last year. Well, read it again.

Today it’s etymology. The two commonly accepted but rarely invoked words for fear of Friday the thirteenth are paraskevidekatriaphobia and friggatriskaidekaphobia. Don’t ask why two words are needed. Both are of relatively recent vintage, just like the literarily induced phobia. Don’t ask who needed the phobia either.

So paraskevidekatriaphobia is of purely Greek provenance. Paraskevi means Friday in modern Greek. It’s derived from the verb meaning to prepare, because on Friday Greek Orthodox Christians prepared and presumably prepare for Saturday, which is their traditional Sabbath. (You don’t have to be Jewish to rest on Saturday.) There are also a few saints named Paraskevi. And don’t forget about Friday in “Robinson Crusoe.”

Dekatria simply means thirteen in Greek, i.e., deka ten and tria three. And of course a phobia is a fear.

Hence, paraskevidekatriaphobia means fear of Friday the thirteenth. And it’s all Greek to us.

Friggatriskaidekaphobia, on the other hand, goes international and adds the Norse goddess Frigga (or Frigg), after whom Friday is named, to the equation. You’ll have refreshed your memory that Frigga’s (or Frigg’s) sons are possible progenitors of the curse of the number 13.

Triskaidekaphobia—tris three, kai and, deka ten, phobia fear—is the more common word for fear of the number thirteen.

Friggatriskaidekaphobia, then, is also fear of Friday the thirteenth.

So why not a third coinage, paraskevitriskaidekaphobia? Or a fourth one, friggadekatriaphobia? And there are countless other possible words in English for the fear of Friday the Thirteenth if we escape from or transcend Greek roots. But who wants to go there?