EAST ASIAN TETRAPHOBIA - The Negative Connotations And Fear Surrounding The Number "4"
"Tetraphobia" is the fear of the number 4. In various countries in East Asia, the number 4 is often considered unlucky, particularily for it's association with death. For this reason, a 4th floor in a multi-story building is often omitted in the way that in many western buildings there aren't any 13th floors. Other numbers which contain the numeral 4 are also avoided some such extent, such as 14, 24 and 42. This can even affect business in some East Asian countries - often, addresses, phone numbers, prices and company names containing the number four in it are avoided.
"4" in Japan
Note: a "homophone" is a word with the same pronunciation as another word, but they have different meanings.
In Japanese, the number 4 is pronounced as “shi" (し) which means death. Other numbers associated with the number 4 are often avoided, such as the number 43 is a homophone of 死産 (shizan) which means stillbirth. For this reason, rooms number 43 are avoided in Japanese hospital. Similar combinations include the word for 49 is a homophone for 死苦 (shiku, "a painful death) and 42, homophone for 死に (shini, "to death). In Japanese giftgiving customs, objects are never handed out in sets of 4 - usually either 3 or 5.
"4" in Korea
In Korea, the word 사 means both "four" and "death". A consequence of this is that South Korea's national railway company KoRail has skipped the train number "4444"
"4" in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong
Note: any numbers in the phonetic transcriptions for any of the non-English words in this paragraph are representative of the tone of the syllable.
In Mandarin, the word for number four (四, pronounced sì) is a homophone (save for the tones) with the word for death (死, pronounced sǐ). The same applies to Cantonese, Shanghainese, Hakka and Taiwanese, in which the word for 4 (四) is pronounced as sei, sy2, si3 and sù respectively while the words for death (死) are pronounced as séi, sy2, si4 and sú.
Connotated combinations of numbers in which 4 appears
514 has negative connotations as 五一四 (5-1-4, wǔ yī sì) sounds similar to the words for "I want to die" (我要死) in Mandarin (wǒ yào sǐ).
5354 has negative connotations in Hong Kong as 五三五四 (5-3-5-4, ńg sāam ńg sei) sounds similar to Cantonese 吾生吾死 (m̀ sāang m̀ séi), which translates to "not alive, not dead", meaning a miserable state in which one is practically dead.
5201314 however, has positive connotations in mainland China as 五二零一三一四 (5-2-0-1-3-1-4, wǔ èr líng yī sān yī sì) sounds similar to 我爱你一生一世 (wǒ ài nǐ yī shēng yī shì) meaning "I love you a lifetime".
Sources: Tetraphobia on wikipedia, Chinese numerology, Japanese superstitions, howstuffworks, tofugu.
