the.com/ruin
proof that even collapse can be photogenic given enough centuries
means To damage something so badly it's beyond saving, or the broken remains left behind when that happens.
from From Latin 'ruina,' a falling-down or collapse, built on the verb 'ruere,' to rush, fall, or tumble headlong. It reached English through Old French 'ruine.' The same violent toppling sense lingers in 'ruinous' and in the cousin word 'rush' is unrelated, but the Latin 'ruere' also gave us the rare 'ruinate.' What began as the sound of something crashing down became the polite noun we use for crumbled abbeys and bankrupted fortunes alike.
- word origin
- from Latin ruina, a headlong rushing fall
- ruin tourism
- Romans visited Greek ruins as fashionable melancholy
- folly trend
- 18th-century elites built fake ruins for vibes
- slow process
- Detroit and Pompeii share the same erosion playbook
- single letter
- add g and ruin becomes ruing, pure regret
pompeii — roman city buried by mount vesuvius in 79 ad, preserving 20,000 residents
angkor wat — 12th-century khmer temple complex in cambodia, reclaimed by jungle for centuries
chichen itza — maya city in yucatan mexico, abandoned around 1200 ad
machu picchu — incan citadel in peru, mysteriously abandoned in the 1500s