catastroscope

English

Etymology

Blend of catastrophe +‎ -scope. Associated with comedian Jimmy Durante by the 1940s, and the Jennings books of Anthony Buckeridge in the 1950s.

Noun

catastroscope (plural catastroscopes)

1. (humorous, dated, usually hyperbolic) A catastrophe
   • 1947 October, Cameron Shipp, "America's No. 1 Clown" Coronet vol. 22 no. 10 p. 17

     Confronted with such a word as "catastrophe," Durante runs amok and produces "catastroscope," which the late Robert Benchley argued was a great improvement. Even such a modest adjective as “exuberant” feels the edge of Durante’s scorn. It comes out “exubilant,” which is not only funny but more exuberant.

   • 1952 July 27, Jimmy Durante, “I Ups to London”, in Evening Star, Washington, DC, page 28:

     He'd like a tip like that, I says to myself, and to surprise him I slips in 10 pounds on the horse for him. And the horse loses to Pearson! A catastroscope!

   • 1955, Anthony Buckeridge, Our Friend Jennings‎^[1], London, Glasgow: Collins, page 214:

     “What a ghastly catastroscope,” lamented his fellow-author. “Why do these gruesome hoohahs always have to pick on us to happen to?["]

   • 1989 September 12, Alan Cookman, “One Man's Week”, in Evening Sentinel, Stoke-on-Trent, UK, page 19:

     My congratulations to the team responsible for "TV Hell," your evening of selected tripe from the archives. ... Unfortunately, your researchers slipped up. As a connoisseur of catastroscopes, I am astonished there was no reference to a uniquely appalling show which elbowed itself onto the schedules about a decade ago.

   • 1991, Dick Cate, The incredible Willie Scrimshaw‎^[2], London: A. & C. Black, →ISBN, page 15:

     Oh dear! A catastroscope here at Harringay Arena! The plucky young flyweight is down again!

   • 1995, Mike Seabrook, “Season of Goodwill”, in Tim Heald, editor, A Classic Christmas Crime, London: Pavilion, →ISBN, page 54:

     The other thing that's worth knowing about Harry is that the one thing he's never short of is ideas, and that's really where we come in now, because I got the idea for my Christmas special from him, and a right bleeding catastroscope it turned out to be.

   • 2000, "Catastroscope" Research & Development vol. 42 p. 13 →ISSN

     The 200th anniversary of the US in 1976 coincided with the sesquimillennial of the fall of Rome in 476 A.D. ... It apparently was what the late comedian Jimmy Durante might have said, " It's a catastroscope!"

   • 2007, Max Sollitt, Catastroscopes: A Creative and Adventurous Australian Bloke's Battle with Clinical Depression and Anno Domini, (Melbourne : Temple House) →ISBN
   • 2015, Colin Tatz, Human Rights and Human Wrongs: A Life Confronting Racism‎^[3], Monash University Publishing, →ISBN, page 19:

     A pedagogic disaster, a catastroscope as comedian Jimmy Durante would say.