hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia: The fear of the number "666".
Apparently it is common enough that someone felt the need to coin a new word for it. The most amusing thing, of course, is that "666" might actually be a mistranslation. There is enough evidence to cast doubt on it--some feel that it was probably "616". The Roman Catholics believe that the number refers to Roman Emperor Nero, not the Antichrist.
Some noted examples of hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia:
- U.S. Route 666, “the Highway of the Beast”, was renumbered as US Route 491in 2003 after controversy over the supposed reference to the Biblical beast, which also made the road signs a common target for theft.
- When the CPU manufacturer Intel introduced the 666 MHz Pentium III in 1999, they chose to market it as the “Pentium III 667”, claiming that, since the actual clock speed was 666.666 MHz, 667 was the more accurate approximation, against their usual rounding practice, examples of which are the 66.666 MHz “486-66”, the 466.666 MHz “Celeron 466” and the later 866.666 MHz “Pentium III 866”