The phrase “all hell broke loose” refers to a sudden descent into chaos and confusion. It has origins in both Christian and pre-Christian religions, with Hell opening and its contents wreaking havoc. It is used to describe events and societal breakdowns, and has been used in TV shows and documentaries.
The term “all hell has broken loose” means a situation that has suddenly descended into total chaos and confusion. It is a phrase in the past that indicates the event that happened in the near or distant past. Events tend to be relatively peaceful before anything wreaks havoc. The sentence is idiomatic because the meaning cannot be derived from a direct translation of its constituent words.
“All hell broke loose” comes from both Christian and pre-Christian religions across Europe. Many pagan or polytheistic religions, including Roman, Greek, and Anglo-Nordic, had places where there were bad people and monsters. Hell is directly related to the Anglo-Norse version of Hell and the goddess Hel, who ruled it. The word is linguistically consistent across all Germanic languages from Frisian to Gothic.
The idea of hell breaking loose developed under Christianity, but had its origins in the Anglo-Nordic religion. Part of the mythology has Hell opening as part of Ragnarok, the apocalypse of the gods and the reshaping of the world. Christianity added the idea with demons and the devil but didn’t create it. In both mythologies, Hell literally opened up and its contents poured out upon the Earth, wreaking havoc and destruction.
It is used as a term of remembrance and appears most often when someone is describing events. This can be first-hand experience or second-hand relationship. “All hell broke loose” is usually preceded by “then” to demonstrate a continuation of events in the narrative.
Coups d’état also often give rise to the use of the term. It is used to mean the breakdown of law and order within a society. It has been used, for example, in countries such as Iraq in 2003, Thailand during political riots, and Libya in 2011. When a government falls, there is a vacuum until the new one asserts its power, and this allows chaos to develop as people take advantage of it.
Several TV shows and documentaries have used the title “Excuse the Hell.” In 1995, Israeli director Amir Feldman produced a documentary about the lives of two victims of a suicide bombing in his country. The TV show “Charmed” also used it as an episode title. The second season of “Supernatural” concluded with a two-part episode of the same title in which all hell literally broke loose on Earth.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
