Heptadecaphobia

Heptadecaphobia (Greek: δεκαεπτά "seventeen" and φόβος, phobos, "fear") or heptadekaphobia is the fear of the number 17. It is considered to be ill-fated in Italy and other countries of Greek and Latin origins, while the date Friday the 17th is considered especially unfortunate in Italy. The number is feared due to superstition, and is similar in nature to the fear of the number 13 in Anglo-Saxon countries.

Heptadecaphobia
Row 17 is omitted on this Alitalia plane
SpecialtyPsychology

History

In Ancient Greece, the number 17 was despised by followers of Pythagoras, as the number was between 16 and 18, which were perfect representations of 4x4 and 3x6 quadrilaterals, respectively.[1]

In the Old Testament, it is written that the universal flood began on the 17th of the second month (Genesis, 7-11).[2]

In Ancient Rome, the term "VIXI" ("vissi", "I lived", signifying that the person is now dead) was commonly inscribed on tombs of the deceased. This is an anagram of "XVII", the number 17 in the Roman numbering system.[3]

In La smorfia napoletana, a "dictionary" that associated certain vocabulary words to numbers to be played in the lottery, the number 17 is associated to "misfortune".[4]

Friday the 17th

Indigenous to Italy, Friday the 17th is a date of misfortune, as it is a date of two negatives: Friday (from Good Friday, the day of Jesus' death) and the number 17.[5]

Friday the 17th is similar to other unfortunate dates: for example, in Anglo-Saxon countries, this date is Friday the 13th, while in Spain, Greece, and South America, this date is Tuesday the 13th.

In mass media, the theme is portrayed in movies, such as The Virtuous Bigamist (Italian: "Era di venerdì 17") and Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th (Italian: "Shriek - Hai impegni per venerdì 17? ", where in English, the title refers to the number 13.)

gollark: I see.
gollark: Well, I was timed out for 10 minutes for whatever reason, and people generally don't press buttons like that by accident.
gollark: There are obviously some non-voting ways to influence politics, but those are generally more costly/annoying, so the situation is probably not much better.
gollark: Discussing politics also has the great effect of sometimes alienating people you know.
gollark: Since your probability of deciding an election by voting is not very high, the expected value of that is very low, and - since people are very hard to convince away from their views - it's even worse for *discussing* politics.

References
  1. "CICAP Piemonte". www.cicap.org. Retrieved 2020-01-09.
  2. "Bible Gateway passage: Genesis 7:11 - King James Version". Bible Gateway. Retrieved 2020-01-09.
  3. "Venerdì 17". Retrieved 2020-01-09.
  4. "Numero 17 nella smorfia napoletana - 'a Disgrazzia ( La sfortuna)". Smorfia.org. 2016-07-07. Retrieved 2020-01-09.
  5. "Venerdì 17, una giornata temuta". TGCOM. October 16, 2008. Archived from the original on October 17, 2009. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
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