MELTDOWN NOUN (BUSINESS WORLD)

A disastrous and uncontrolled event with far-reaching repercussions; especially in financial jargon, an uncontrolled rapid fall in share values, a crash. Etymology: A figurative application of meltdown in its nuclear physics sense, 'the melting of the core of a nuclear reactor'--an event which, once started, cannot easily be controlled, and which causes widespread destruction and contamination. History and Usage: This figurative sense arose in the US in the mid eighties after the Three Mile Island accident, and was reinforced by the near meltdown of a nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in the Soviet Union in 1986. In the financial world, it was applied especially to the stock market crash of October 1987, when dramatic falls in share values on Wall Street had repercussions in all the world markets. Monday 19 October 1987 was given the nickname Meltdown Monday (but see also Black Monday). Meltdown is now used in more trivial contexts as well, with a weakening of meaning to 'slump, failure'. The rapidly growing international hotels group, Queens Moat Houses, yesterday asked its shareholders to dip into their pockets for the third time since Meltdown Monday, to help pay for further expansion. Guardian 17 Aug. 1989, p. 12 The Expos...suffered another meltdown and sank to fourth place. New Yorker 11 Dec. 1989, p. 74 Smarties-to-coffee giant Nestle disappointed chocoholics with a 5% meltdown in its half-way profits. Today 15 Sept. 1990, p. 35