Long, long ago, many years ago, all around us, families were running away, carrying whatever they could. The rumour floated around that “Nagarjuna Sagar dam has broken, and we are going to be swept away.”

My mother stood on the balcony with her brood of three, and I was the youngest at around seven, waiting for my father to return home. She had kept a small suitcase ready with whatever little treasures we had, and was panicking when she saw the neighbours all running away.

My father sauntered in. I didn’t understand much, but what I heard from him was, “We can’t outrun water, and if the rumours are true, we die anyway. It is either here in the comfort of our house or elsewhere.”

Terrified at the word “die”, we sat around our father while he chanted Slokas and kept us engaged with mythological stories. The next morning, people returned sheepishly while we slept deeply in our own beds.

Why am I remembering this today? A WhatsApp message landed about how the shortage of LPG cylinders is going to cause havoc due to the ongoing war. The message read in a telegraphic manner, Watch news, collect cylinders! The scary visuals of people lining up at both the gas company and petrol bunks were all over the news channels. The government is trying to crack down on the black market.

Any war is unnecessary, and this too is. We don’t know how long it will last, or how much we and the world around us will be affected by the unnecessary tensions it causes. But then, can we outlive all around us if we manage to collect all the cylinders in the world? That remains the pertinent question. I remember reading about ‘a bank run’ for the first time in Arthur Hailey’s Money Changers. It taught me that banks can potentially collapse if all the depositors come to withdraw all their money on one particular day.

Rumour is generally unverified, organic information passed informally, like how the present scenario is playing out. It creates panic. The war is on, and the energy supplies are dwindling. Unfortunate that the powers to be are involved in whataboutery, and Propaganda.  The panic is, in turn, making people hoard LPG cylinders. One man has gone a step further and hoarded 1000 litres of petrol in Punjab.

So, where does the word ” panic ” come from?

The term “Etymology” is the study of the origin of words.  The practice of etymology is uncovering the truth by tracing the root of a word and its evolution thereafter.

Panic comes from the name of the ancient Greek god Pan, who possessed a stentorian voice. It is said that the ancient Greek gods were battling a horde of giants, and Pan’s shout was so overwhelming that it instilled fear in the gods’ opponents, aiding in their eventual victory. He occasionally caused humans to flee in fear, which is where the commonly used sense of panic comes from.

This word existed in English as an adjective or adjectival form modifying such words as fear, fright, or terror. For ex: Panique feare

By the early 17th century, panic had already jumped from one part of speech to another and began to be used as a noun. It took some time for Panic to be used as a verb, and that happened only at the end of the 18th century.

In the early 20th century, panic took on yet another distinct meaning: “something very funny.” For example: The comedy show was an absolute panic!  It is used more as slang. Though the meaning is completely at odds with the earlier sense, it actually makes perfect sense considering the word descended from a god whose nature provoked both merriment and fear.

The very panic is turning all of us into a hoarder- a morbidly overzealous collector! And if you have more than 3 cylinders, you might be breaking the law.

But, I do wish the war ends, and better sense prevails among the powers-to-be.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/the-mythological-origin-of-panic

https://www.etymonline.com/word/hoard

This blog post is part of ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’ 

hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla.

Image credit: AI ( I have fallen in love with ChatGpt!)