the.com/meltdown
when the reactor of your composure loses coolant and everything goes critical at once.
means a sudden, total collapse of control, whether in a nuclear core, a stock market, or a toddler at 6pm.
from coined in nuclear engineering for when reactor fuel overheats and melts through its containment, most famously feared at three mile island in 1979; by the 1980s it had melted its way into slang for any emotional or systemic collapse.
first recorded use1937, describing metal, not people
chernobyl vs meltdownchernobyl was an explosion, not a true meltdown
corporate slangwall street borrowed it for 1987s stock crash