apocalypse

Etymology

From Middle English apocalips, from Latin apocalypsis, from Ancient Greek ἀποκάλυψις (apokálupsis, “revelation”), literally meaning "uncovering", from ἀπό (apó, “back, away from”) and καλύπτω (kalúptō, “I cover”). The sense evolution to "catastrophe, end of the world" stems from the depiction of such events in the biblical Book of Revelation, also called the Apocalypse of (i.e. Revelation to) John.

noun

1. A revelation, especially of supernatural events.
   The early development of Perl 6 was punctuated by a series of apocalypses by Larry Wall.
2. (Christianity) The unveiling of events prophesied in the Revelation; the second coming and the end of life on Earth; global destruction.
3. (Christianity) The Book of Revelation.
4. A disaster; a cataclysmic event; destruction or ruin.
   A nuclear apocalypse would have been possible if tensions went out of control during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
   Man has forgotten the soul and thus doomed his civilization to apocalypse. 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 180
   The Spanish mission in America soon became not so much crusade as apocalypse. 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, page 699