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APOCALYPSE, NOW...

11/9/2016

2 Comments

 
Not to seem partisan, but I think this is an extremely appropriate word for the day after the 2016 presidential election, with a historical but not necessarily unapocalyptic outcome (neither unapocalyptic nor inapocalyptic are words, but the former should be). The word apocalypse dates back to Greek roots, with apo- (meaning the prefix "un-") and kaluptein (meaning "cover") combining to form apokaluptein ("uncover, reveal"). This transitioned in Greek to be apokalupsis, and was adopted by the Catholic Church's Latin translation. This was then taken to mean "revelation", which is uncovered and revealed. Most revelations were bad, so this caused apocalypsis (as it was now called) to take on a negative connotation. This was passed into French and then English, with only marginal changes along the way. The backstory of the word apocalypse might interest the epitome of an etymology enthusiast because it shares the same root as the word eucalyptus, meaning the kind of tree koalas eat. Like all other trees, Eucalyptus was a seed that was covered in soil, giving it the same stem as apocalypse.
2 Comments
Michael Brown link
8/4/2019 08:52:11 am

I am going to publish an episode of my new podcast soon about the word "apocalypse" and how it changed from meaning revelation to "the end of the world." Any additional information you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

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Stephen link
10/12/2020 04:44:57 pm

I don’t trust words cause they are so ambiguous. I don’t trust much of anything anymore. I’m so tired of fanned if you do and daybed if you don’t.

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    Hello! I'm Adam Aleksic, a sophomore studying linguistics and government at Harvard University, where I founded the Harvard Undergraduate Linguistics Society. I also have disturbing interests in politics, vexillology, geography, board games, conlanging, and law. 
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