the.com/blast
a word that means either you're having fun or losing limbs.
means A sudden violent burst of air, sound, or force — or, casually, a thoroughly good time.
from From Old English 'blæst,' a blowing or blast of wind, kin to 'blow' and rooted in the Proto-Germanic notion of puffing air. For centuries it simply meant a gust or a trumpet's blare; the explosive 'detonation' sense grew alongside gunpowder, and the cheery 'we had a blast' slang is a much more recent American flowering — the same word, now carrying both the bomb and the party.
- origin
- From Old English for a gust of wind
- slang flip
- Became 'fun' only in the 20th century
- physics
- Shockwaves travel faster than the sound itself
- furnace
- Blast furnaces hit over 2000 degrees Celsius
- radio
- Radio blasts can outshine entire galaxies briefly
beirut port explosion — august 4, 2020 explosion that killed 218 people and devastated lebanon's capital
halifax explosion — december 6, 1917 munitions ship collision in nova scotia that killed ~2,000 people
tianjin warehouse explosions — august 12, 2015 chemical warehouse blasts in china that killed 173 people