So what are you afraid of? While most people harbor fears that are perfectly logical and reasonable, many people suffer from sometimes debilitating fears that are commonly referred to as phobias.

As everyone knows, phobias come with some really strange-sounding names – usually from Greek root words – and that’s what we’ll be looking at today.

For instance, you might be afflicted with agoraphobia, which the American Psychiatric Association says is a disorder in which a person suffers “anxiety about being in places or situations from which escape might be difficult or embarrassing.” Agoraphobia gets its name from the Greek words “agora” (place of assembly, marketplace) and “phobos” (fear).

On the other hand, you might live in fear of confined or tight places. That’s called claustrophobia, which gets its root word from the Latin “claustrum” (lock, bolt).

By now you’re probably wondering, “Just exactly what is a phobia anyway?” It’s defined as a persistent and intense fear of a certain object, person, situation or activity.

Another common phobia is arachnophobia, which comes by its name from the Greek word “arakhnē” (spider). Besides being the title of a 1990 horror/comedy film starring John Goodman, arachnophobia is, according to Merriam-Webster, the “pathological fear or loathing of arachnids and especially spiders.”

Or maybe you’re more than just a little concerned when you’re confronted with the number 13. If that’s the case, then you’re suffering from triskaidekaphobia, which gets its name from the Greek words “treis” (three), “kai” (and) and “deka” (10).

Closely related to triskaidekaphobia is paraskevidekatriaphobia, a word coined by Pepperdine University Professor Donald Dossey (1934-2016) who added “paraskevi” (Friday) into the mix and reportedly assured his patients that simply learning how to pronounce the word would cure them of their fear of Friday the 13th.

And since ‘tis (almost) the season to be jolly, what better time to look at the phobias that “psychiatrist” Lucy Van Pelt thinks Charlie Brown might be afflicted with in the 1965 animated special “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” The only problem is that the folks at Merriam-Webster.com had already beaten me to it. That said, here’s a quick recap of their piece.

The first phobia she thinks Charlie might have is hypengyophobia or an abnormal fear of responsibility, whose root comes from the Greek “hypengyos” (responsibility).

Next Lucy asks him if he has ailurophasia (she probably meant “ailurophobia”), which is fear of cats and comes from the Greek “ailouros” (cat).

Climacophobia, the fear of falling off a ladder or down a staircase, is next and is derived from the Greek “klimax” (ladder). (There’s also bathmophobia, which is the fear of steps or steep slopes and comes from “bathmos” meaning “step.”)

Next she ponders whether her patient could be afflicted with thalassophobia, fear of the sea, which gets its name from “thalassa” (sea).

When she asks Charlie if he has “gephyrobia, which is the fear of crossing bridges,” Lucy, according to Merriam-Webster lexicographers, “omits a syllable.” They say she is trying to pronounce gephyrophobia, from the Greek noun “géphyra” (bridge).

The last phobia “Dr. Van Pelt” thinks Charlie Brown might be suffering from is pantophobia, or the fear of everything, and comes from the Greek prefix “pan” (all or everything).

“That’s it!” Charlie exclaims, before accepting her offer to be the director of the group’s Christmas play.

In closing, sesquipedalophobia used to mean the fear of long words, but someone (who must really enjoy torturing writers) decided that it wasn’t long enough, so it has since been changed to hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. Really.

Jim Witherell of Lewiston is a writer and lover of words whose work includes “L.L. Bean: The Man and His Company” and “Ed Muskie: Made in Maine.” He can be reached at [email protected].