apocalyptic
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /əˈpɒ.kə.lɪp.tɪk/
Etymology: Borrowed from Ancient Greek ἀποκαλυπτικός (apokaluptikós, “revelatory”), from ἀποκάλυψις (apokálupsis, “revelation”), from ἀποκαλύπτω (apokalúptō, “I reveal, uncover”).
Senses: examples: text: Let him go and make, and burn, a pile or two [of bricks] with his own hands; he will thereby receive apocalyptic visions of a nature novel to his soul.
ref: 1876, John Ruskin, “Letter LXIV”, in Fors Clavigera. Letters to the Workmen and Labourers of Great Britain, volume VI, Orpington, Kent: George Allen, →OCLC, page 116:
text: From beginning to end, and throughout, the Gospel makes such frequent use of apocalyptic motifs and the apocalyptic viewpoint that it deserves to be called the apocalyptic Gospel."
ref: 1985, Donald A. Hagner, Apocalyptic Motifs in the Gospel of Matthew: Continuity and Discontinuity, page 92:
text: This was because apocalyptic stories — from the Greek word apohalupsis which means "reveal" — uses the vocabulary of symbols and numbers and contains concealed messages that secular listeners cannot comprehend.
ref: 2002, Peter W. Smith, In the Day of the Lord: The Exciting and Promised Fulfillment, page 7:
text: “It’s true that as I walk out of my house in a nice quiet street and go to a nice cafe five minutes’ walk away, I have no reason to have these apocalyptic musings.”
ref: 2019 November 3, Andrew Anthony, quoting David Mitchell, “David Mitchell: ‘I have no reason to have these apocalyptic musings’”, in The Observer, →ISSN:
topics: lifestyle
religion
glosses: Of or relating to an apocalypse:
Revelatory; prophetic.
examples: text: For the first time since the show began, a sense of utter loneliness overwhelmed me, a bitter despair at the uselessness of individual effort in this gigantic tragedy of apocalyptic destruction.
ref: 1919, Arthur Hamilton Gibbs, Gun Fodder: The Diary of Four Years of War, Little, Brown, page 276:
text: In fact, interpreters commonly declare that Mark is an "apocalyptic" Gospel. When they read Jesus' long speech toward the end of the Gospel (chap. 13), they even detect a veritable "apocalypse": "Wars and rumors of wars, […]"
ref: 2001, Richard A. Horsley, Hearing the Whole Story: The Politics of Plot in Mark's Gospel, page 122:
text: These bookends house a wealth of apocalyptic stories. The Bible, like some street preacher with a sign, shouts, "The end is near!"
ref: 2010, Philip Leroy Culbertson, Elaine Mary Wainwright, Bible in Popular Culture, page 184:
text: Life in the SCP universe continually hangs by a thread, threatened constantly by the existence of a number of dangerous and apocalyptic anomalies. These threats are countered and contained by the existence of organizations such as the SCP Foundation or the Global Occult Coalition.
ref: 2019 January 14, “Exploring the SCP Foundation: SCP-2935 - O, Death” (0:07 from the start), in The Exploring Series, archived from the original on 25 Mar 2023:
text: […]and the pillar of smoke which had recently begun to dissipate, as many of the fires amidships had been smothered by the onrushing water, was replaced by a vast mushroom cloud of steam, smoke, flame, and debris as the magazines detonated. In the pall of this apocalyptic destruction, the U.S. fleet takes stock.
ref: 2021 May 5, Drachinifel, 42:53 from the start, in Battle of Samar - What if TF34 was there?, archived from the original on 19 Aug 2022:
glosses: Of or relating to an apocalypse:
Catastrophic; disastrous.
examples: text: Submissions on the part of gay teachers and students and organizations were countered by apocalyptic denunciations on the part of Bible-toting mothers and fathers expertly organized by the right.
ref: 1981 February 14, Alexander Wilson, “The New Right Attacks Childhood Sexuality: A Canadian Perspective”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 29, page 6:
glosses: Portending a future apocalypse (disaster, devastation, or doom).
examples: text: He was apocalyptically furious.
glosses: Catachresis for apoplectic.
Derived terms: word: apocalyptical
word: apocalypticalist
word: apocalyptically
word: apocalypticism
word: apocalypticist
word: apocalyptic number
word: apocalyptism
word: peri-apocalyptic
word: post-apocalyptic
word: postapocalyptic
word: preapocalyptic