tohu-bohu
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See also: tohubohu
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Biblical Hebrew תוהו ובוהו, from תֹהוּ (tóhu, “nothingness, void”) + בֹּהוּ (bóhu, “emptiness, desolation”).
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌtəʊ.huːˈbəʊ.huː/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˌtoʊ.huˈboʊ.hu/
- Hyphenation: to‧hu‧bo‧hu
Noun
[edit]tohu-bohu (uncountable)
- 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
[edit]Translations
[edit]formless chaos; void
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French
[edit]Etymology
[edit]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
[edit]Noun
[edit]tohu-bohu m (plural tohu-bohus)
- 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
[edit]- “tohu-bohu”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Categories:
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- English 4-syllable words
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- English multiword terms
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- English terms derived from the Bible
- French terms borrowed from Biblical Hebrew
- French terms derived from Biblical Hebrew
- French 4-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:French/y
- French terms with homophones
- French lemmas
- French nouns
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- French multiword terms
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- French terms derived from the Bible