The word for today is…
catastrophe (noun) – 1. A great, often sudden calamity.
- A complete failure; a fiasco.
- The concluding action of a drama, especially a classical tragedy, following the climax and containing a resolution of the plot.
- A sudden violent change in the earth’s surface; a cataclysm.
Source : The Free Dictionary
Etymology : When English speakers first borrowed the Greek word katastroph? (from katastrephein, meaning “to overturn”) as catastrophe in the 1500s, they used it for the conclusion or final event of a dramatic work, especially of a tragedy. In time, catastrophe came to be used more generally of any unhappy conclusion, or disastrous or ruinous end. By the mid-18th century, it was being used to denote truly devastating events, such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Finally, it came to be applied to things that are only figuratively catastrophic—burnt dinners, lost luggage, really bad movies, etc.
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