tohu-bohu

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See also: tohubohu

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

From Biblical Hebrew תוהו ובוהו, from תֹהוּ (tóhu, “nothingness, void”) + בֹּהוּ (bóhu, “emptiness, desolation”).

Pronunciation

Noun

tohu-bohu (uncountable)

  1. Chaos, disorder, confusion.
    • 1875, William Gladstone, Gleanings of Past Years, section VI:
      Yet a judge may […] be required to dive, at a moment's notice, into the tohu-bohu of inquiries, which have never yet emerged from the stage of chaos.
    • 1940, W. H. Auden, In Sickness and in Health:
      […] / The decorative manias we obey / Die in grimaces round us every day, / Yet through their tohu-bohu comes a voice / Which utters an absurd command — Rejoice.

Alternative forms

Translations

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Biblical Hebrew תוהו ובוהו (tóhu va-bóhu, “without form and void”), from תֹהוּ (tóhu, “nothingness, void”) + בֹּהוּ (bóhu, “emptiness, desolation”), by allusion to Genesis 1:2.

Pronunciation

Noun

tohu-bohu m (plural tohu-bohus)

  1. tohu-bohu (commotion, chaos)
    • 1862, Victor Hugo, chapter 7, in Les Misérables, Tome I : Fantine, book 3:
      Mes frères, je le répète, pas de zèle, pas de tohu-bohu, pas d’excès, même en pointes, gaîtés, liesses et jeux de mots.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • 1871, Arthur Rimbaud, “Le Bateau Ivre”, in Poésies:
      Dans les clapotements furieux des marées / Moi l’autre hiver plus sourd que les cerveaux d’enfants, / Je courus ! Et les Péninsules démarrées / N’ont pas subi tohu-bohus plus triomphants.
      In the furious surging of the tides / Last winter, deafer than the brains of children / I ran! And unmoored Peninsulas / Have not endured more triumphant tohu-bohus.

Further reading

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