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
- Severe overheating of the core of a nuclear...
Ancestry of “meltdown”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | English | Down | — |
| 2 | Middle English | doun | down |
| 3 | Old English | dūn | hill, down; hill, dune; hill, mountain |
| 4 | Proto-Germanic | *dūnā | — |
| 5 | Proto-Celtic | dūnom | stronghold, rampart |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | dʰewh₂- | smoke; mist, haze |