apocalypse

Pronunciation

• IPA: /əˈpɒkəlɪps/ (UK); /əˈpɑkəlɪps/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English apocalipse (“revelation”),^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman apocalipse,^[3][4] from Ecclesiastical Latin apocalypsis (“revelation”),^[5][2][3] from Ancient Greek ἀποκάλυψις (apokálupsis, “uncovering, revelation”),^[2][3][4] from apokalúptein “to uncover, reveal”,^[2][3][5] from Ancient Greek ἀπο- (apo-, “off, away”) + καλύπτειν (kalúptein, “to cover, conceal”),^[5][2][6] from Proto-Indo-European *kel- (“to cover, conceal”).^[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The revelation granted to St John on Patmos, and the New Testament book that records it.^[7][4][5] The OED's first quotation is from c1175;^[7] Etymonline cites pocalipsis from c. 1050 and Apocalypse from c. 1230.^[5]

Semantic evolution

By the late 14th century it meant any revelation or disclosure,^[7][5] and in Middle English also “vision, hallucination”.^[5][4] Because the Book of Revelation was often read as an account of the end of the world, the word came to mean a violent end of the world by 1940,^[5] and then any great disaster.^[2][3][6] Etymonline notes that this general sense was not yet in the 1989 OED.^[5]

Timeline

• c1050 – pocalipsis, title of the Book of Revelation.^[5]
• c1175 – the Apocalypse of St John.^[7]
• 1382 – any revelation or disclosure.^[7]
• c1384 – a vision or hallucination.^[4]
• 1940 – the violent end of the world.^[5]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (capitalized) The Book of Revelation.
2. Any of the Jewish and Christian writings of about 200 BC to AD 150 or later that reveal, in symbolic visions, an imminent cosmic catastrophe and the triumph of the righteous.
3. Great or total devastation; a large-scale disaster.
4. A prophetic revelation.

Word family

• apocalyptic
• apocalypticism

Related words

• calypso
• eucalyptus
• revelation

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press