Where does “meltdown” come from?

Meltdown is a phrasal verb from English melt down, originally denoting the melting of metal in a furnace, later applied to nuclear reactor failures and emotional collapse.

meltdown (English): Severe overheating of the core of a nuclear...

Definitions

  1. Severe overheating of the core of a nuclear...

Ancestry of “meltdown”, step by step

meltdown traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via English Down

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishDownusually known as County Down
2Middle Englishdoundown
3Old Englishdūnhill, down; hill, dune; hill, mountain
4Proto-Germanic*dūnā—
5Proto-Celticdūnomstronghold, rampart
6Proto-Indo-Europeandʰewh₂-smoke; mist, haze

via English melt

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1EnglishmeltMolten material, the product of melting; The...
2Middle Englishmeltento melt
3Old Englishmeltanto consume by fire, melt, burn up; dissolve,...
4Proto-Germanicmeltanąto dissolve; melt
5Proto-Indo-European(s)mel-false, erroneous; bad, evil

Words derived from “meltdown”

Every word from Proto-Indo-European dʰewh₂- →Every word from Proto-Celtic dūnom →Every word from Proto-Germanic *dūnā →