tohu-bohu

English

Etymology

From Classical Hebrew תֹהוּ (tóhu, “nothingness, void”) + בֹּהוּ (bóhu, “emptiness, desolation”), occurring together (as תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ (tóhu vavóhu)) in Genesis 1:2.

Noun

tohu-bohu (uncountable)

1. Formless chaos; void.
   • 1875, William Gladstone, Gleanings of Past Years, 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.

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tɔ.y.bɔ.y/
• Rhymes: -y
• Homophone: tohu-bohus

Noun

tohu-bohu m (plural tohu-bohus)

1. commotion
2. chaos

Quotations

• 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.