The word catastrophizer is derived from the word catastrophe, which describes a person. But what is a catastrophizer?
A catastrophizer is a person who sees significant danger in everyday things. They magnify the threat they see in events that others might note but show less concern about. A weather forecast of thunderstorms gets most of us to remember our umbrellas before going out. But for a catastrophizer, it might signal a time to go to the store and stock up on items you would only need after a tornado.
“Because Ralph was a catastrophizer, he never went out at the slightest sound of thunder.”
“Judy never invested in the stock market because she read about the 1929 Great Depression; she had become a financial catastrophizer in our opinion.”
“After watching the nightly news, Suzie’s level of fear drifted beyond pessimism, and she became a hard-core catastrophizer.”
“My dog is scared to death of thunder and hides under the table; if he were human, he would be a hardcore catastrophizer.”
Halfpace is a raised area or floor like a dais or a platform. It is most often used to describe the area around a throne that sits at the top of a set of stairs, sometimes referred to as a footpace. But the term can also be used less formally to describe a staircase with a landing between two flights where the turn is 180 degrees. This is obviously half a circle, thus halfpace.
Then there is quarterpace, a description of a staircase with a landing between two flights where the turn is 90 degrees instead of 180 degrees.
“Joseph climbed the halfpace stairs and turned on the landing to go to the top.”
“George ascended the quarterpace stairs to sit on his throne on the footpace.”
“Marie had become so afraid of the carpet on the halfpace stairs that she had descended to a catastrophizer state.”
