Ever since I could read I devoured books. When I was young, it was surfing, racing, and of course Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy mysteries. As I got older it was everything from classics to science fiction/fantasy, religion to mythology, true crime and yes, I even loved researching things in the Encyclopedia. But in all that reading, I never remember coming across the word kakorrhaphiophobia.
Almost everyone suffers from a mild form of this fear, just not enough to consider it a phobia. I am pretty good at spelling; I don’t remember ever being in a major spelling bee. If I had been, I’m pretty sure this word have made my top ten nightmare words. Have you figured out what it is? It’s the fear of failure.
Some of the words I find, like hurkle-durkle become part of my normal vocabulary; just saying them make me happy. Kakorrhaphiophobia will be relegated to the shadowy corners of my brain where hopefully it will shortly be covered in cobwebs and forgotten. Feel free to do the same.
