From: usenet@listmail.good-stuff.co.uk 
  
 On 4 Aug 2025 17:25:52 GMT, Roger Hayter  wrote: 
  
 >On 4 Aug 2025 at 17:58:29 BST, "Max Demian"  wrote: 
 > 
 >> [1] "Holocaust" means total destruction by fire, which could refer to 
 >> any cremation. I first heard the term used in reference to the wartime 
 >> activity in the 1970s I think. 
 > 
 >Is 'holocaust' a rough translation of a Hebrew word? I believe the 
 >Palestinians have a similar Arabic word for the mass slaughter, destruction 
 >and population expulsions on the formation of Israel. 
  
 It's derived from a Greek word for a burnt offering, but by the early 20th 
 century it was commonly used in English as a colloquialism for destruction 
 by fire and, by extension, to mean any mass destruction. The destruction of 
 Dresden and Hiroshima were, at the time, both described as holocausts, as 
 were bombing raids on many British cities. Winston Churchill used the word 
 in a speech directed at Italians urging them to overthrow the fascist regime 
 in order to avoid "a holocaust". The term "Nazi holocaust", referring to the 
 destruction inflicted on Europe as a whole, dates back to 1940. 
  
 In the immediate post-war years, as news of the extermination camps became 
 widely known, the term "Jewish holocaust" was applied to what went on in 
 them. Eventually, the word came to be associated solely with the Nazi 
 genocide, rather than any other mass destruction, and the word "Jewish" was 
 dropped. It was helped in that respect by the fact that it became the 
 preferred English translation of the Jewish word "shoah", even though they 
 don't come from the same linguistic root. 
  
 Mark 
  
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