Paraskevidekatriaphobia

When I was kid, I pestered a slightly older (and much smarter) kid to teach me how to say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

The word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, according to Mary Poppins, the Disney character who first used it, is a word you use when you say nothing at all.

In my home town of East Helena, Montana, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is what we would call a five-dollar word.  I would also add that as I became a bigger kid, I swapped five-dollar words for a handful of choice swear words.

Curse words are also good words to use when you say nothing at all.

I arrive today with a new word: paraskevidekatriaphobia.  It’s five-dollar word for “fear of Friday the thirteenth.”

According to Dr. Donald Dossey, the psychotherapist specializing in phobias who devised the word, you get over the fear of Friday the thirteenth just by learning to pronounce paraskevidekatriaphobia.

I don’t know about that.  At this point, I am sticking with my curse words.

—Mitchell Hegman