doomsday
the end of the world
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
Norway plans to build a DOOMSDAY seed vault (Tresorraum) that will preserve 2 million seeds from virtually all varieties of the world's food crops.
The $3 million vault will be located inside a sandstone mountain on the permafrost-covered island of Spitzbergen, just 600 miles from the North Pole.
Construction will start in 2007. The project aims to protect the world's food from "nuclear war, climate change, terrorism, rising sea levels and the ensuing collapse of electricity supplies."
(adapted from Vegetarian Times Magazi
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LORD KIRKHAM, who is attempting to acquire (UK sofa retailer) DFS for £445m, yesterday denied he was painting a DOOMSDAY scenario for the sofa retailer despite warning full-year profits would miss City expectations.
(The London Independent)
The $3 million vault will be located inside a sandstone mountain on the permafrost-covered island of Spitzbergen, just 600 miles from the North Pole.
Construction will start in 2007. The project aims to protect the world's food from "nuclear war, climate change, terrorism, rising sea levels and the ensuing collapse of electricity supplies."
(adapted from Vegetarian Times Magazi
---
LORD KIRKHAM, who is attempting to acquire (UK sofa retailer) DFS for £445m, yesterday denied he was painting a DOOMSDAY scenario for the sofa retailer despite warning full-year profits would miss City expectations.
(The London Independent)
Did you
know?
doomsday (sometimes capitalised, Doomsday)
noun
1. a day of final judgment
2. a time of catastrophic destruction and death
(Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary)
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WORD ORIGIN
Doom derives from the Old English word dom, meaning law, judgement or condemnation. Thus doomsday is the day on which mankind is to be judged by God. This scenario is outlined in many religious texts such as the New Testament, the central element of Christianity, and the Koran, the sacred text of Islam.
Norse mythology has its own “doomsday scenario” referred to as Ragnarok (this is the modern Danish and Norwegian spelling), which literally means the fate of the Gods. Rather than a day of judgement however, Ragnarok describes a final battle between the Norse Gods and their enemies that leads to the destruction of the universe.
The Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union after World War II, which ended with the fall of communism in Russia in 1991, caused countless doomsday prophecies involving a nuclear disaster. And in London recently, a group of prominent scientists warned that the world is moving closer to a nuclear or environmental apocalypse by pushing the hand of its symbolic Doomsday Clock closer to midnight.
It's not always necessary to view doomsday in such a serious light however. As Mr. Bounderby, the wealthy and unmarried businessman in Charles Dickens' novel Hard Times, says to his servant Mrs. Sparsit:
"If I waited to be taken care of by my wife, ma'am, I believe you know pretty well I should wait till Doomsday, so I'll trouble you to take charge of the teapot."
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SYNONYMS
Judgement Day, day of reckoning, Last Day, Last Judgement, Armageddon, apocalypse, end of the world
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IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS TODAY
say something like:
“If you read what the analysts are saying about stock prices at the moment, you would think doomsday is approaching. They know that the markets always recover at some point.”
noun
1. a day of final judgment
2. a time of catastrophic destruction and death
(Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary)
---
WORD ORIGIN
Doom derives from the Old English word dom, meaning law, judgement or condemnation. Thus doomsday is the day on which mankind is to be judged by God. This scenario is outlined in many religious texts such as the New Testament, the central element of Christianity, and the Koran, the sacred text of Islam.
Norse mythology has its own “doomsday scenario” referred to as Ragnarok (this is the modern Danish and Norwegian spelling), which literally means the fate of the Gods. Rather than a day of judgement however, Ragnarok describes a final battle between the Norse Gods and their enemies that leads to the destruction of the universe.
The Cold War between the United States and the former Soviet Union after World War II, which ended with the fall of communism in Russia in 1991, caused countless doomsday prophecies involving a nuclear disaster. And in London recently, a group of prominent scientists warned that the world is moving closer to a nuclear or environmental apocalypse by pushing the hand of its symbolic Doomsday Clock closer to midnight.
It's not always necessary to view doomsday in such a serious light however. As Mr. Bounderby, the wealthy and unmarried businessman in Charles Dickens' novel Hard Times, says to his servant Mrs. Sparsit:
"If I waited to be taken care of by my wife, ma'am, I believe you know pretty well I should wait till Doomsday, so I'll trouble you to take charge of the teapot."
---
SYNONYMS
Judgement Day, day of reckoning, Last Day, Last Judgement, Armageddon, apocalypse, end of the world
---
IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS TODAY
say something like:
“If you read what the analysts are saying about stock prices at the moment, you would think doomsday is approaching. They know that the markets always recover at some point.”
