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Vanity Fair

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The idea that two words that happened to be used together in a massive novel somehow is an original source for this phrase really is nonsense, isn't it? It's a "perfect storm of sympathy" or "perfect storm of sympathy", not a "a perfect storm of sympathy", surely? You would need the usage to be pre-existing for that to even begin to make sense as a meaning. It's just a coincidence given meaning by hindsight, and I reckon the whole section should be deleted, myself.--Crgn (talk) 01:21, 14 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I thought so, too. Especially when you say the use must have pre-existed to make any sense. However, the pre-existence may have been oral, so I left the quote in but reduced its emphasis in the article. By the way, it is interesting that the quote in the story takes place by the sea-side. There could be something to that. martin (talk) 10:05, 12 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]


Get a life, its a good story —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.147.171.160 (talk) 02:46, 19 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Synonynyms

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Perfect storm can sound cliche. Using synonyms withing the description would be helpful.Ghosts&empties 19:08, 16 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The last paragraph is unintelligible to the ordinary reader. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 222.153.37.7 (talk) 10:31, 4 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The USGS Link is dead.: 8/7/08 12:41Pm —Preceding unsigned comment added by 206.83.249.14 (talk) 16:41, 7 August 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Origin incomplete

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The term "perfect storm" may have been popularized by Junger, but it appears in its meteorological sense before 1993. The OED gives two pre-1993 citations. One is from the Los Angeles Times in 1991:

Fed by what water officials called ‘the perfect storm’, the Santa Clara River flowed to the ocean for the first time in five years.

The other is from the Port Arthur News in 1936:

The weather bureau describes the disturbance as ‘the perfect storm’ of its type. Seven factors were involved in the chain of circumstances that led to the flood.

The wording used in the 1936 citation demonstrates that the modern meteorological sense of a combination of factors leading to a disaster was already in use at that time. Michael Slone (talk) 12:31, 21 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]

article is now inconsistent about coinage

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The article claims that Sebastian Junger coined the phrase in 1993, but also cites historical uses of the phrase in both meteorological and metaphorical senses. It seems clear, then, that Junger did not coin the phrase and thus the article shouldn't say he did. But maybe he didn't know about its prior existence and it would make sense to say he "independently coined" it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.245.70.186 (talk) 13:30, 12 August 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Origins

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A Google Ngram lookup on "perfect storm" shows a very large peak of usage in the mid-1800s. Google Ngram: perfect storm

References in the New York Times for the 1860s have a different usage of the phrase. It was frequently used in battle descriptions: "a perfect storm of lead and iron" (General Sherman's Army: The Battles of May 27 and 28), or in descriptions of a large quantity of a single thing: "a perfect storm of applause (STATE POLITICS.; Meeting of the Democratic State Convention at Albany.Nomination of Hon. Horatio Seymourfor Governor).

Query the New York times 1861 to 1870. Subscription required.

konetidy (talk) 14:15, 3 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

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Why not a superstorm?

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What is the difference between perfect storm and superstorm? Besides, perfect storm is as (il)logical as "perfect tornado". Of course, I understand that native speakers love illogical idioms :-) By the way, outside of Wikipedia I would use a stronger word that "illogical" :-) 85.193.240.163 (talk) 15:30, 21 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

jj 212.253.197.190 (talk) 11:57, 5 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Proposed merge of Superstorm into Perfect storm

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Both articles deal with aberrant or significant storms. The same concept. Superstorm has a list uncited since 2020. At the time of posting, superstorm is not mentioned in the storm article. NWS is a US-based service, this article seems to be entirely focused on North America. Merge and redirect. Classicwiki (talk) If you reply here, please ping me. 21:29, 16 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

  checkY Merger complete. Klbrain (talk) 21:33, 14 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]
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