Word of the Day: The shocking history behind this chaotic word will blow your mind

Words are not just a way of communicating they also carry history within them. Some words are born out of historical events and carry forward their dark legacy and help us express the chaos and confusion the time or place experienced. Today's Word of the Day is one such term that has a dark past but has been used recently to describe chaos.

US government workers have been left in a limbo to after DOGE boss Elon Musk asked them to explain their work during the week or risk losing their job. The uproar and confusion which was caused within the US federal government after the email was described by one worker to CNN in a simple sentence – “It's bedlam.”

Word of the day

Bedlam, pronounced as bed-luhm, refers to a scene of chaos and confusion. The word has sinister origins as it comes from the name of a 14th century mental asylum in London which was notorious for its chaos.

(Also read: Master this powerful word and take your English to the next level)

Origin of bedlam

The Bethlehem Royal Hospital was a psychiatric institution in London started in 1247 but by the 16th century the conditions of the facility became so grim and disturbing that its name changed from Bethlehem to "bedlam" and became synonymous with madness and disorder.

Such were the conditions inside that in the 17th and 18th centuries, people would pay money to watch the patients amid the chaos inside as if they were in a zoo. The chaotic scenes of insanity became synonymous with its name and the name became a term for chaos.

How to use it?

Shedding its grim past, the word now refers to any scene of uproar, confusion, or disorder —especially crowds or large gathering even legislative assemblies or parliaments. Some have even used the word to describe retail shops during Black Friday sales or noisy classrooms in a school.

Here are example of sentences using bedlam:

"As soon as the concert tickets went on sale, the website crashed in a state of bedlam."

"The courtroom descended into bedlam as the verdict was announced."

If you enjoyed our Word for the Day, try our engaging brain teasers. We curate the most popular puzzles and optical illusions on the internet to bring you brain teasers that are sure to leave you scratching you head.

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