Salutations, savvy studiers! Welcome to today’s episode of An Assemblage of Grandiose and Bombastic Grandiloquents. Get out your lucky rabbit’s foot, your four leaf clover, and your horseshoe, because today’s word is: triskaidekaphobia.

Triskaidekaphobia is the extreme superstition about the number thirteen. The word comes from the Greek ‘treiskaideka’, meaning ‘thirteen’, which in turn comes from ‘treis’ meaning three and ‘deaka’ meaning ten. Whilst there are numbers regarded in different cultures as lucky numbers, the most unlucky number, by far, is undoubtedly the number thirteen. It would appear that the fear of thirteen is fairly recent, as the oldest printed record dates back to the late 1800s, with use of the word triskaidekaphobia being found 1911.

There are several theories that suggest the origin of thirteen’s bad luck. Some suggest that originates at the Last Supper, because Jesus was betrayed after having twelve guests, and thus a total of thirteen present. Another theory originates in Norse mythology, where the god Odin invited eleven of his closest friends to a dinner party at his home in Valhalla, only to have the party crashed by Loki, god of evil and turmoil, bringing the number of those present to thirteen people. Balder, one of the most beloved gods, tried to throw Loki out of the party, resulting in a scuffle and ultimately Balder’s death. It is still common today for hotels and office buildings to omit the thirteenth floor, out of suspicion of bad luck. 

Similarly, there is ‘friggatriskaidekaphobia’, which is the fear of Friday the thirteenth, known for being a day on which bad, spooky or evil things can happen. This work adds ‘frigga’ to our already defined triskaidekaphobia, which comes from the English variant of the Old Norse Frigg, the Norse goddess for whom Friday was named. 

Isn’t language wonderful?

Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C Weber

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