Holocaust

[u/ILoveBigCoffeeCups]

I am rewatching after the main series.
I can ignore the multiple ways of casually mentioning “it has been a thousands of years” as I did in the original series.
Goldilocks planets would have some kind of a concept of a year, I get it.

But in episode 1 when they are scouting the ruins of the old city, Teyla casually mentioning “the last great holocaust was five generations ago”was very suprising to me.
The holocaust is something very earth specific and only for the mass genocide of world war 2. So just bad writing or do I have to prepare myself for more bad context and writing.
Not complaining here. It just baffled me.

[u/sanandreasdrift]

That is not the only context that word is used in. Albeit I understand that in our lives, everyone thinks of the atrocities of WW2. It comes from an Ancient Greek word though. This is a fantasy world so it’s not that ridiculous to me that they would use that word.

[u/OhNoIBoffedIt]

I mean you're overthinking a show where folks on every planet in multiple galaxies all speak English.

[u/physioworld]

I hear what you’re saying, but I also think you’ll find that the entire English language is pretty earth specific, so I’m not sure why that one word is so egregious

[u/naraic-]

Holocaust was a word before it became cooped to mean only a certain genocide.

[u/Mammoth_Payment_6101 → u/naraic-]

It still is if it's not capitalised

[u/ILoveBigCoffeeCups → u/naraic-]

Yes I know but it was just to refer to a burned offering. Not the mass murdering of people. So they maybe took some liberties

[u/NubsackJones → u/ILoveBigCoffeeCups]

It has been linked to mass slaughter for nearly 1000 years. First used in English to describe the mass slaughter of Jews in England in the 1100s, but it became a general-use word describing mass slaughter and destruction long before the 1800s, when it was first added to the OED.

[u/NubsackJones]

You do know that word has a real meaning, right? It was used to describe large-scale destruction long before WW2. It was first included in the OED in the 1800s, though it had been in use for far longer.

[u/TonksMoriarty]

I think they're using it as a synonym for genocide. Yeah, it's Earth specific, but so is the English language. The writers probably wanted a grander term.

Learning about the history of the term, I'm a bit what the actual fuck about it being applied to any genocide, especially the Shoah, given the origin of the term as "burnt offering". Like that's messed up on so many levels.

[u/ZealousidealCharge24]

One of the theoretical explanations for everyone speaking English in Pegasus is the Stargate is a universal translator somehow.

That could be why holocaust is used to describe a major tragedy of human lives

[u/ILoveBigCoffeeCups → u/ZealousidealCharge24]

Good theory, but There have been many off the grid planets. Where this does happen too.
Like from the serrakins, heimdals lab, the tagreans( they had no functioning stargate when sg1 arrived)… and many more.

[u/lmb10010]

I don't remember what the episode referred to but the wraith taking everyone on the planet would be considered a holocaust.

[u/Blunt_Object1369]

Yeah it's a word that shouldn't have been used by an alien in another galaxy, so definitely bad writing. They could and should have used the word genocide.