Word of the day: hemoclysm
The word means a violent and bloody conflict, a bloodbath; specifically (chiefly with capital initial), the period of the mid-twentieth century encompassing both world wars.
It was coined in 1998 by Matthew White in his book ‘30 Worst Atrocities of the 20th Century’ when he wrote:
‘It’s very possible, therefore, that future historians will consider these events to be mere episodes of a single massive upheaval – the “Hemoclysm”, to give it a name (Greek for “blood flood”) – which took the lives of some 155 million people.’