Spotted by Ben Zimmer on Twitter, the hashtag #debtageddon, specifically for the approaching consequences of the U.S. failing to increase its debt ceiling. There’s the portmanteau element -((m)a)geddon, from Armageddon, which is rapidly working its way to libfix status.
Previously on this blog: snowmageddon along with other portmansnow words, here; carmageddon, here; and carmageddon, karmageddon, and courtmageddon, here.
Though most of the hits for debtmageddon are connected to American politics, there are a few others, for instance this one on the forum for the computer hardware business Overclockers UK (OcUK):
I’ll not argue that when it comes to things like performance/mm2 Nvidia’s solutions leave a lot to be desired, but only a fool would think that this will be an unchanging situation. They still have a lot of very smart people working for them, and if AMD can bring things back from the brink of debtageddon (with the help of $1.2Bn in Intel hush money) then why do some persist in constant doommongering? (link)
A couple political cites:
It’s funny as the deadline is approaching for Debtageddon, that various Republicans are speaking out against this farcical partisan fight over something that should have never happened. [on many sites, for instance here]
The NRCC almost, but doesn’t quite get to the essence of Red Barry’s “unseriousness” on the matter of Debtageddon (link)
Debtageddon seems to be catching on on Twitter, but the competitor Debtmageddon (which preserves more of Armageddon, at the cost of the greater phonological complexity of t-m) has a strong presence elsewhere, for instance:
Debtmageddon
I’ve pieced together a series of articles on the debt ceiling negotiations. I will be the first to admit that this is not a labor of love for any of us, but we truly need to be involved. (link)Preparing the Battlespace for Debtmageddon (link)
July 19, 2011 at 9:00 am |
John Stewart had armadebtdon on his show last night
July 19, 2011 at 11:14 am |
gaymageddon and goremageddon are two others.
July 19, 2011 at 3:54 pm |
I much prefer “debtmageddon”. In speech either works, but the urge to read deb-tag-eddon is overwhelming even knowing what the word is, and I stared at the first instance – with no context – wondering what a deb tag even was…