[Antedating] Triskaidekaphobia (1908)

Bonnie Taylor-Blake taylor-blake at NC.RR.COM
Fri Mar 13 05:36:07 UTC 2009


OED2 shows a usage of "triskaidekaphobia" in 1911 by I.H. Coriat.  Just a
few years earlier, Coriat had co-authored a book in which the word appeared.

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Among the more common [phobias] are "monophobia," fear of being alone;
"claustrophobia," fear of narrow places; "agoraphobia," fear of broad or
open places; "ereutophobia," fear of blushing; "triskaidekaphobia," fear of
the number 13; "mysophobia," fear of dirt or microbes; "nosophobia," fear of
disease.  [p. 281]

[From E. Worcester, S. McComb, I.H. Coriat, _Religion and Medicine:  The
Moral Control of Nervous Disorders_. New York:  Moffat, Yard & Company,
1908.]

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David Dossey seems to have coined "paraskevidekatriaphobia" in 1992 to
describe a fear of a day such as today.

http://drdossey.com/fri13.htm

-- Bonnie

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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