Götterdämmerung

From German Götterdämmerung (“twilight of the gods”), which see below.

• IPA^(key): /ɡɒtəˈdæməɹʊŋ/ (or as German, below)

Götterdämmerung (uncountable)

1. (Germanic mythology) The myth of the destruction of the gods in a final battle with the forces of evil; the apocalypse.
2. Any cataclysmic downfall or momentous, apocalyptic event, especially of a regime or an institution.
   • 2004, Martin Torgoff, Can't Find My Way Home […] , Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 153:

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

   • 2010, PuppetGov, We Stand on the Cusp of one of Humanity’s Most Dangerous Moments:

     We will not, especially in the United States, avoid our Götterdämmerung.

• Götterdämmerung on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

18th century, from Götter (“gods”) +‎ Dämmerung (“twilight”), a calque of Old Norse ragnarøkkr, an attested reinterpretation of ragnarǫk (literally “fate of the gods”). Popularised by Wagner's opera of 1853.

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

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Götterdämmerung f (genitive Götterdämmerung, plural Götterdämmerungen)

1. (Germanic, chiefly Norse mythology, also figuratively) downfall of the gods, Götterdämmerung, Ragnarok

• Götzendämmerung

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