Götterdämmerung

English

Etymology

Borrowed from German Götterdämmerung (“twilight of the gods”), which see.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌɡɒtəˈdæməɹʊŋ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˌɡɑtɚˈdæmɚ.ʊŋ/, [ˌɡɑɾɚˈdɛə̯mɚ.ʊŋ]

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

Noun

Götterdämmerung (plural Götterdämmerungs)

1. (Norse mythology) The myth of the destruction of the gods in a final battle with the forces of evil; the apocalypse.
2. (by extension) Any cataclysmic downfall or momentous, apocalyptic event, especially of a regime or an institution.
   • 1915, Robert W. Chambers, “Un Peu d'Amour”, in Police!!!‎^[1]:

     To me a nasturtium by the river brink is more than a simple flower. It is a broader, grander, more magnificent, more stupendous symbol. It may mean anything, everything—such as sunsets and conflagrations and Götterdämmerungs!

   • 2004, Martin Torgoff, “Everybody Must Get Stoned”, in Can’t Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945–2000, New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 153:

     After so much music, love, and flowers, she felt benumbed, thunder-struck by this psychedelic Götterdämmerung.

   • 2009 February 14, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, “Failure to save East Europe will lead to worldwide meltdown”, in The Telegraph‎^[2]:

     If mishandled by the world policy establishment, this debacle is big enough to shatter the fragile banking systems of Western Europe and set off round two of our financial Götterdämmerung.

   • 2020 June 2, Thomas Wright, “We’ve Now Entered the Final Phase of the Trump Era”, in The Atlantic‎^[3]:

     We are in the Götterdämmerung now, the final phase of the Trump era.

   • 2023 July 18, Charles Bramesco, “Before Barbenheimer: when major movies are released on the same day”, in The Guardian‎^[4], →ISSN:

     Plenty of fence-sitters have withheld their allegiance by booking a double feature, but the impending cineplex Götterdämmerung still speaks to something fundamental about how and why we pit movies against one another.

Further reading

• Götterdämmerung on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

German

Etymology

18th century, from Götter (“gods”) +‎ Dämmerung (“twilight”), a calque of Old Norse ragnarøkkr, an attested reinterpretation of ragnarǫk (literally “fate of the gods”). Popularised as the name of the last part of Richard Wagner's Ring cycle (1876).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡœtərˌdɛmərʊŋ/, [ˈɡœ.tɐˌdɛ.mə.ʁʊŋ]

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

Götterdämmerung f (genitive Götterdämmerung, plural Götterdämmerungen)

1. (Norse mythology or figuratively) downfall of the gods, Götterdämmerung, Ragnarok
   • 1922, Kasimir Edschmid, Das Bücher-Dekameron‎^[5]:

     Die Zeit rollt mit allen ihren Hebeln und Kräften ihre Repräsentanten an die Rampe und es ist nicht die Schuld und nicht das Verdienst ihrer Helden, wenn sie mit dem Weltdonner von Ragnarök in die Götterdämmerung fahren oder im Zuckblitz der Scheinwerfer und zweihundert PS die Ewigkeit suchen.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2022 October 11, Stefan Reinecke, “Lob der biederen Normalität”, in Die Tageszeitung: taz‎^[6], →ISSN:

     Die Regierung in Berlin wankt, zumindest ein wenig, der rechte Rand wird stark. Götterdämmerung der Demokratie? Ist es nun so weit?

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Declension

Declension of Götterdämmerung [feminine]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	eine	die	Götterdämmerung	die	Götterdämmerungen
genitive	einer	der	Götterdämmerung	der	Götterdämmerungen
dative	einer	der	Götterdämmerung	den	Götterdämmerungen
accusative	eine	die	Götterdämmerung	die	Götterdämmerungen

See also

• Götzendämmerung
• Ragnarök

Further reading

• “Götterdämmerung” in Duden online
• “Götterdämmerung” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• Götterdämmerung on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de