This weekend I had a chance to look ahead in my calendar and noticed I have an event scheduled on Friday June 13. In my family, the number 13 is considered lucky so I’ve never been one to suffer from triskaidekaphobia. However, a little Web searching suggests that fear of Friday the 13th might be the most common superstition in the US, afflicting nearly 10% of the population. Luckily, it only occurs once in 2014.
My favorite phobia is arachibutyrophobia – the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. The mere mention of it is a great way to start a conversation among a group of strangers. You’d be surprised how many people are scared of that.
I’ve also always been intrigued by the term batophobia. No, it’s not fear of bats – that’s chiroptophobia. Instead batophobia is the fear of heights or being close to high buildings.
Unless you have phobophobia (fear of phobias), here are 10 other interesting phobias worth knowing:
Bromidrophobia – Fear of body smells
Coulrophobia – Fear of clowns
Ergophobia – Fear of work
Glossophobia – Fear of speaking in public
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia – Fear of the number 666
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia – Fear of long words
Logizomechanophobia – Fear of computers
Pteromerhanophobia – Fear of flying
Selachophobia – Fear of sharks
Xanthophobia – Fear of the color yellow or the word yellow
Tell me what you think; unless you have CommentOnBlogophobia.
There’s always the Gary Larson special for starting a conversation: luposlipaphobia – the fear of being pursued by timber wolves around a kitchen table while wearing socks on a newly waxed floor.
More seriously, while I personally suffer from acrophobia, I’d have to think that coulrophobia (the fear of clowns) is not only an interesting phobial, but is perhaps far more common than many people might admit.
In fact, the FIFA World Cup always starts on a Friday in the middle of June. This year, in Brazil, guess what?, the first game will take place on Thursday, June 12th…
As the Spanish proverb goes, “yo no creo en brujas, pero que las hay, las hay” (I don’t believe in witches, but they surely exist).
what about the word for lack of phobias? inabsentiaphobia? 🙂