"triskaidekaphobia"

Question

1.) How is the word "triskaidekaphobia" pronounced? Could someone pleasegive the IPA transcription?
2.) Is this word well-known among most speakers of English?
3.) When I want to describe my daily routine, should I say "in the morning"or "in the mornings" or is both equally correct?

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]1.) How is the word "triskaidekaphobia" pronounced? Could someone please give the IPA transcription?[/nq]
/,trIski,dEk@'foUbi@/
or
/,trIsk@,dEk@'foUbi@/
[nq:1]2.) Is this word well-known among most speakers of English?[/nq]
It is a trite cliché among people who play with words, especially those who have first run into and try to impress.
It has no other use so is unknown to most speakers of English. Whenever I see it, I yawn. It is unlikely that anything around it is worthwhile.
[nq:1]3.) When I want to describe my daily routine, should I say "in the morning" or "in the mornings" or is both equally correct?[/nq]
It depends on context, but "in the mornings" is more indicative of things regularly done as part of the daily routine.

Martin Ambuhl

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]1.) How is the word "triskaidekaphobia" pronounced? Could someone please give the IPA transcription? 2.) Is this word well-known among most speakers of English?[/nq]
Possibly, but only as a "novelty" word. Anyone older than me probably knows it from the 1946 Les Brown recording "Triskaidekaphobia".
[nq:1]3.) When I want to describe my daily routine, should I say "in the morning" or "in the mornings" or is both equally correct?[/nq]
"In the morning" is correct. "In the morning I brush my teeth." "in the mornings" is stilted and would be better expressed as "On mornings" or just simply "Mornings". "Mornings I get out of bed." "Saturday mornings I sleep late." Yet most Americans would probably say, "Saturday morning I sleep late.", meaning all Saturday mornings rather than just this one.
Question: Would most of you say "sleep late", "get up late" or "sleep in"? In my vernacular "sleep late" and "sleep in" have the same meaning, but "sleep late" is more commonly spoken. But "get up late" can mean both intentionally or unintentionally sleeping late.

Brian Wickham

Usenet · Answer

Original Message

Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2003 8:35 AM
Subject: "triskaidekaphobia"
[nq:1]1.) How is the word "triskaidekaphobia" pronounced? Could someone please give the IPA transcription?[/nq]
tris-ky-dek-uh-FOH-bee-uh
[nq:1]2.) Is this word well-known among most speakers of English?[/nq]
Indeed no. It is only known to Jeopardy contestants and those annoying people with word of the day calendars who think, for some unknown reason, that people will find it interesting. It is not a clinical term, and no psychologist would ever use it because there has never been a case where a person was only afraid of that number and nothing else, it is always accompanied by many morbid phobias, such as volatile reactivity to breaking mirrors or crossing black cats. It is basically a nonsense word invented by putting latin prefixes and suffixes together. Please note that there are words describing phobias for such things as oxygen and circular objects, with no known cases of actual infliction.
A teacher of mine once noted that there is no single clinical term for dried snot or boogers. He combined some latin, came out with the word "Rhinolith" - nose stones. It has since become the accepted clinical term for boogs within physiology.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]It is basically a nonsense word invented by putting latin prefixes and suffixes together.[/nq]
Actually, they're Greek roots.
[nq:1]Please note that there are words describing phobias for such things as oxygen and circular objects, with no known cases of actual infliction.[/nq]
These terms drive me up the wall. I frequent trivia chatrooms on the net, and have grown to detest 'phobia' and 'collective noun' questions, where people ask about weird and wonderful terms that are of dubious provenance, and not to be found in dictionaries, even one as copious as the OED.
Sebastian.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]It is not a clinical term, and no psychologist would ever use it because there has never been a case ... there are words describing phobias for such things as oxygen and circular objects, with no known cases of actual infliction.[/nq]
It describes the phenomena of buildings that skip a 13th floor.

Usenet · Answer

X-No-Archive: yes
[nq:1]1.) How is the word "triskaidekaphobia" pronounced? Could someone please give the IPA transcription? 2.) Is this word well-known among ... to describe my daily routine, should I say "in the morning" or "in the mornings" or is both equally correct?[/nq]
Triskaidekaphobia, meaning a fear of three-sided kaleidoscopes, is rarely used now because the kaleidoscope, once a popular Victorian toy, has fallen from favour. There isn't one to be found in the Gamley catalogue.

James Follett. Novelist (Callsign G1LXP)
http://www.jamesfollett.dswilliams.co.uk and http://www.marjacq.com

Usenet · Answer

While it was 10/9/03 1:35 pm throughout the UK, the guy with the eye sprinkled little black dots on a white screen, and they fell thus:
[nq:1]1.) How is the word "triskaidekaphobia" pronounced? Could someone please give the IPA transcription?[/nq]
/,trIskaI,dEk@'f@Ubi@/ is how I've always come across it.
[nq:1]2.) Is this word well-known among most speakers of English?[/nq]
Not sure.
[nq:1]3.) When I want to describe my daily routine, should I say "in the morning" or "in the mornings" or is both equally correct?[/nq]
"Every morning", if you want to be clear about what you mean.

Stewart.

My e-mail is valid but not my primary mailbox. Please keep replies on on the 'group where everyone may benefit.

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