Chernobyl

Chernobyl

See also: Chernóbyl

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Russian Черно́быль (Černóbylʹ).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /tʃɜːˈnɒbəl/, /tʃɜːˈnəʊbəl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /t͡ʃɚˈnoʊbəl/
• Rhymes: -ɒbəl, -əʊbəl

Proper noun

Chernobyl

1. A partially abandoned city and ghost town in northern Ukraine, known as the site of a nuclear disaster.
   • 1991 July 26, Brad Knickerbocker, “Think Tank on the Efficient Energy Trail”, in Christian Science Monitor‎:

     A couple of oil shocks, a Chernobyl meltdown, and a Gulf War later, his basic message - the need to emphasize efficiency and renewable resources over oil and nuclear power - is still a minority view, […]

2. (by extension) The 1986 nuclear accident which resulted in the abandonment of the aforementioned city.

   After Chernobyl, very few nuclear power plants were built for years.

Alternative forms

• Chornobyl

Derived terms

• Chernobylian
• chernobylite
• Chernobylite
• Chernobyl syndrome

Translations

city in Ukraine

Arabic: تْشِيرْنُوبِيل‎ m (tširnūbil) Armenian: Չեռնոբիլ (Čʿeṙnobil) Basque: Txernobyl Belarusian: Чарно́быль m (Čarnóbylʹ) Bengali: চেরনোবিল (cernobil) Bulgarian: Черно́бил (Černóbil) Catalan: Txernòbil Chinese: Mandarin: 切爾諾貝利／切尔诺贝利 (zh) (Qiè'ěrnuòbèilì) Crimean Tatar: Çornobıl Czech: Černobyl (cs) m Danish: Tjernobyl Esperanto: Ĉernobilo Estonian: Tšornobõl Finnish: Tšernobyl (fi) French: Tchernobyl (fr) m Georgian: ჩერნობილი (černobili) German: Tschernobyl (de) n, Tschornobyl n Greek: Τσερνόμπιλ (el) n (Tsernómpil) Hebrew: צ׳רנוביל‎ Hindi: चेरनोबिल (cernobil) Hungarian: Csernobil (hu) Italian: Černobyl' m Japanese: チョルノーブィリ (Chorunōbuiri), チェルノブイリ (Cherunobuiri) Korean: 체르노빌 (Chereunobil) Lithuanian: Černobylis (lt) Macedonian: Че́рнобил m (Čérnobil) Marathi: चेरनोबिल (cernobil) Norwegian: Tsjernobyl Norwegian Nynorsk: Tsjernobyl Polish: Czarnobyl (pl) m Portuguese: Chernobyl m, Chernobil m, Tchernóbil Russian: Черно́быль (ru) m (Černóbylʹ) Samogitian: Černuobīlis Serbo-Croatian: Чернобиљ m, Чернобил m, Černobilj m, Černobil m Slovak: Černobyľ m Slovene: Černobil m Spanish: Chernóbyl m, Chernóbil (es) Swedish: Tjernobyl (sv) Turkish: Çernobil Ukrainian: Чорно́биль (uk) m (Čornóbylʹ) Uyghur: چېرنوبىل‎ (chërnobil) Yiddish: טשערנאָבל‎ (tshernobl)

Noun

Chernobyl (plural Chernobyls)

1. (by extension) A major nuclear-energy accident.
   • 1994 August, “Nuclear chaos”, in Popular Science, volume 245, number 2, page 54:

     Many secret cities were Chernobyls in slow motion.

   • 1999 May 6, Terence Scully, “When cell phones kill our brain waves, we will worry less”, in The Record (Kitchener, Ont.):

     The effects of a Chernobyl disaster in my community would probably be barely noticeable.

   • 2007 September 7, “Imagining a World Without Humans”, in NPR_TalkNation:

     So those would be a lot of Chernobyls that the ecosystem would have to deal with.

   • 2010 March 10, Ben Garcia, “Many Kuwaitis yet to be convinced on nuke energy”, in Kuwait Times:

     It has to be handled properly with great accuracy and no room for mistakes, because if we do have like a Chernobyl catastrophe, God forbid, it could wipe out our entire people.

See also

• Bhopal
• Fukushima
• Hiroshima

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Italian

Alternative forms

• Cernobyl

Etymology

Borrowed from Russian Черно́быль (Černóbylʹ).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃɛr.no.bil/, /t͡ʃer.noˈbil/[1]
• Rhymes: -ɛrnobil, -il

Proper noun

Chernobyl ?

1. Chernobyl (an abandoned city in Kiev Oblast, Ukraine, site of a major 1986 nuclear accident)

References

1. Chernobil in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)

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Portuguese

Proper noun

Chernobyl f

1. Alternative spelling of Chernobil