tohu-bohu

See also: tohubohu

English

Etymology

From Biblical Hebrew תוהו ובוהו, from תֹהוּ (tóhu, “nothingness, void”) + בֹּהוּ (bóhu, “emptiness, desolation”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌtəʊ.huːˈbəʊ.huː/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌtoʊ.huˈboʊ.hu/
• Hyphenation: to‧hu‧bo‧hu

Noun

tohu-bohu (uncountable)

1. 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

• tohubohu

Translations

formless chaos; void

• Esperanto: tohuvabohuo
• French: tohu-bohu (fr) m
• German: Tohuwabohu (de) n
• Hungarian: tohuvabohu (hu)

French

Etymology

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

• IPA^(key): /tɔ.y.bɔ.y/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -y
• Homophone: tohu-bohus

Noun

tohu-bohu m (plural tohu-bohus)

1. 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

• “tohu-bohu”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.