Every year, as a dusting of frozen precipitation causes the UK to grind to a halt, the cry goes up of “snowmageddon!”. The word “Armageddon” derives from the Hebrew “har”, hill or mountain, plus “Megiddo”, a place name. In chess, an “Armageddon” game – in which White has more time but must win – can decide a tournament tie-break. Donald Trump’s recent call for “armed educators” to be installed in every American classroom was not called, er, “armageddon”. If something really does threaten to be the end of the world, we’re going to need a scarier word.

Source: The Irish Times March 01, 2018 06:00 UTC