the.com/tribulation
Suffering with a sense of self-importance, like pain that read its own press kit.
means A period of severe trouble, hardship, or suffering, especially the kind that feels biblical and weighty.
from From Latin tribulare, 'to press, oppress, afflict,' rooted in tribulum — the heavy threshing sledge dragged over grain to separate it from husk. So the word carries, at its root, the image of being crushed and grated under something heavy. It passed into Old French and then English through religious use, especially in translations of scripture describing hardship and persecution, which is how it picked up its grave, almost ceremonial weight.
- root meaning
- from tribulum, a spiked threshing sledge for grain
- biblical flavor
- implies cosmic-scale suffering, not a bad Monday
- etymology irony
- your hardship is literally being thrashed like wheat
- usage tell
- nobody says it about traffic, only existential crises