- Wordgeddon | GOOD – Though apocalypse and Armageddon are used interchangeably in this trend, they used to have distinct meanings. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the original sense of apocalypse as “The ‘revelation’ of the future granted to St. John in the isle of Patmos,” which sounds like a good isle to avoid. Not until the late nineteenth century did the term start to mean “a disaster resulting in drastic, irreversible damage to human society or the environment, esp. on a global scale; a cataclysm. Also in weakened use.” I feel safe in saying a-taco-lypse and French-fry-pocalypse fit under the rubric of weakened use.
Posts Tagged: semantics
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May 09
Daily Links for May 30th
11
Mar 09
Daily Links for March 10th through March 11th
- GOOD » Making Sense of the Financial Mess» – We tried to make sense of the financial mess we’re in. As you can see, we couldn’t come up with anything satisfying, so we want your help. We’re offering $500 to the best global finance infographic we receive, as judged by a prominent economist. UPDATE (3/2/09): We’re blown away by the quality of these submissions. We’ve stopped accepting new ones at this point and judging is underway. We’ll be highlighting some of our favorite entries in the GOOD blog over the next week and we’ll be back here with an update on judging next Wednesday, March 11.
