-mageddon, -geddon, -calpyse, -pocalypse
-mageddon, -geddon: suffisso
-calypse, -pocalypse: suffisso
It’s an American catastrophe that has been dubbed pharmageddon, though it rarely pierces the public consciousness.
It’s the biggest snowfall in Washington since 2010’s Snowmageddon! What’s closed in D.C. on Thursday? Just about everything.
For those of you who braved “Carmageddon”, thanks for coming out for the match.
Remembering the “Moneygeddon“: Can You Say “Subprime” in Spanish?
Given my suspicion of ill-informed technophobia, it was salient to read Philip Lymbery’s Farmageddon.
Katy Perry Vs. Lady Gaga: Who Will Survive The A-POP-calypse?
Patch would like to hear your ideas for traffic nickname (“A Stop-Calypse” was our best shot).
The U.S. auto industry may have climbed back from the Carpocalypse, but it’s still liquidating much of its old pieces, from forklifts to entire factories.
I giornalisti sono costantemente alla ricerca di nuovi modi per attirare l’attenzione di un pubblico sempre più distratto: i due suffissi di cui parliamo oggi, –mageddon (o –geddon) e –calpyse (o –pocalypse) rappresentano due buoni esempi.
L’Interstate 405, o I-405, è un’importante autostrada che attraversa da nord a sud la California meridionale. Nel luglio del 2011 fu chiusa al traffico per lavori di ammodernamento, cosa che spinse giornalisti e Dj delle radio locali a presagire il collasso del traffico e a coniare le espressioni Carmageddon o Carpocalypse. A conti fatti il traffico si rivelò invece più scorrevole del solito, probabilmente perché gli automobilisti ebbero il buonsenso di starsene a casa o di scegliere percorsi alternativi. (Informazioni tratte da Wikipedia.)
Ma da dove presero ispirazione giornalisti e Dj? Forse da Carmageddon, un videogioco d’annata (1997), e da una serie televisiva americana dal titolo Carpocalypse (in onda nel 2005). Comunque sia, il bello di questi due suffissi è che non c’è bisogno di spiegare il tema del videogioco o della serie TV perché il nome stesso lo rende palese.
Si tratta di suffissi utilizzati per significare caos, morte e distruzione in una vasta gamma di contesti: gli effetti devastanti dell’industrializzazione della produzione alimentare, i danni causati dall’eccessiva medicalizzazione della salute, un periodo caratterizzato da condizioni meteo estreme e persino la crisi finanziaria del 2008. Entrambi sono somunque confinati al giornalese e non sono comunemente usati nel parlato.
Origini del termine
Il suffisso –mageddon (o –geddon) deriva da Armageddon, il luogo in cui secondo il Nuovo Testamento si svolgerà la battaglia finale tra il Bene e il Male, mentre –calpyse (o –pocalypse) deriva da Apocalypse, la fine del mondo. Il termine Apocalypse risulta familiare anche per via del celebre film Apocalypse Now di Francis Ford Coppola.
-mageddon, -geddon: suffix
-calypse, -pocalypse: suffix
It’s an American catastrophe that has been dubbed pharmageddon, though it rarely pierces the public consciousness.
It’s the biggest snowfall in Washington since 2010’s Snowmageddon! What’s closed in D.C. on Thursday? Just about everything.
For those of you who braved “Carmageddon“, thanks for coming out for the match.
Remembering the “Moneygeddon“: Can You Say “Subprime” in Spanish?
Given my suspicion of ill-informed technophobia, it was salient to read Philip Lymbery’s Farmageddon.
Katy Perry Vs. Lady Gaga: Who Will Survive The A-POP-calypse?
Patch would like to hear your ideas for traffic nickname (“A Stop-Calypse” was our best shot).
The U.S. auto industry may have climbed back from the Carpocalypse, but it’s still liquidating much of its old pieces, from forklifts to entire factories.
Journalists are always looking for new ways to grab the attention of an ever-more-distracted public. The two suffixes –mageddon (or –geddon) and –calpyse (or –pocalypse) are good examples of the ways in which they do this.
Interstate 405, or I-405 is a major north-south highway in Southern California. One weekend in July 2011 it was closed for scheduled improvements, leading journalists and local radio DJs to predict traffic meltdown, which they wittily referred to as Carmageddon or Carpocalypse. In fact traffic was lighter than usual, presumably because people had the good sense to stay home or alter their travel plans. (I obtained this information from Wikipedia.)
But where did the journalists get the idea? Well, it seems there is a vintage (1997) computer game called Carmageddon, and a TV show called Carpocalypse which was first shown in March 2005. The beauty of these suffixes is that I don’t even need to tell you the nature of the game or the TV show because it is completely obvious from the names.
These adaptable suffixes can be and have been used as a catchy shorthand for mayhem, death and destruction in a wide variety of contexts (the destructive effects of industrialised food production; the damage to health caused by excessive medicalisation; a period of unusually severe weather; even the 2008 financial crisis). However, they have remained firmly in the realms of journalese; you don’t really hear them spoken day to day.
Origins
The two suffixes derive respectively from the name Armageddon, which is where the armies will supposedly gather for the battle at the end of the world, and the Apocalypse, the end of the world predicted in the book of Revelation. The word Apocalypse was of course also popularised by Francis Ford Coppola’s film Apocalypse Now.
