Dictionary

Götterdämmerung en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• [ˌɡɑɾɚˈdɛə̯mɚ.ʊŋ] (US)
• (US) audio
• /ˌɡɒtəˈdæməɹʊŋ/ (UK)
• /ˌɡɑtɚˈdæmɚ.ʊŋ/ (US)

Etymology

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

Meanings

1. (Norse) The myth of the destruction of the gods in a final battle with the forces of evil; Ragnarök.
2. (broadly) Any cataclysmic downfall or momentous, apocalyptic event, especially of a regime or an institution.
   • We are in the Götterdämmerung now, the final phase of the Trump era. 2020 June 2, Thomas Wright, “We’ve Now Entered the Final Phase of the Trump Era”, in The Atlantic:
   • 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. 2009 February 14, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, “Failure to save East Europe will lead to worldwide meltdown”, in The Telegraph:
   • 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! 1915, Robert W. Chambers, “Un Peu d'Amour”, in Police!!!:
   • After so much music, love, and flowers, she felt benumbed, thunder-struck by this psychedelic Götterdämmerung. 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:
   • 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. 2023 July 18, Charles Bramesco, “Before Barbenheimer: when major movies are released on the same day”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

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