havoc
pronunciation
How to pronounce havoc in British English:
UK [ˈhævək]
How to pronounce havoc in American English:
US [ˈhævək]
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- Noun:
- violent and needless disturbance
Word Origin
- havoc
- havoc: [15] The ancestry of havoc is a mystery, but it seems originally to have been an exclamation, probably Germanic, used as a signal to begin plundering. This was adopted into Old French as havot, which was used in the phrase crier havot ‘shout ‘havot’,’ hence ‘let loose destruction and plunder’. Havot became altered in Anglo-Norman to havok, the form in which English adopted it; and in due course cry havoc gave rise to the independent use of havoc as ‘destruction, devastation’.
- havoc (n.)
- early 15c., from the expression cry havoc "give the signal to pillage" (Anglo-French crier havok, late 14c.). Havok, the signal to soldiers to seize plunder, is from Old French havot "pillaging, looting" (in crier havot), which is related to haver "to seize, grasp," hef "hook," probably from a Germanic source (see hawk (n.)), or from Latin habere "to have, possess." General sense of "devastation" first recorded late 15c.
Synonym
Example
- 1. Now such freedom to speculate is wreaking havoc on many economies .
- 2. The longer this goes on , the more havoc it will cause to the global economy .
- 3. Its banks have almost no exposure to the subprime market causing such havoc elsewhere in the world .
- 4. What is certain , though , is that an uncontrolled default will wreak economic and financial havoc .
- 5. This year 's outbreak is notable mainly for its scale , and the apprehension that future years will unleash equal havoc .