Kollaps

Kollaps is a noun used in Norwegian and Swedish to denote a sudden failure or breakdown of a person, a system, or a structure. It can refer to a literal physical collapse, such as a body or a building giving way, as well as to more figurative failures, like the rapid breakdown of an organization, economy, or political order. In medical contexts the term often describes circulatory collapse or shock, while in engineering and architecture it describes the failure of a component or structure.

Etymology and usage conventions vary slightly between languages, but the word is generally understood as a direct borrowing from the English term collapse, which itself traces back to Latin collāpsus. In Scandinavian medical and technical literature, kollaps is used alongside more specific terms, but it remains common in everyday language to express dramatic failure or exhaustion.

Contexts and examples of use include discussions of structural safety after an accident, analyses of economic crises, or descriptions of sudden health events. The term can be applied across disciplines such as engineering, medicine, ecology, and social sciences, reflecting both literal and metaphorical meanings. Kollaps is typically neutral in tone in encyclopedic writing, serving as a concise label for abrupt downward transitions rather than as a value judgment.

See also: collapse, systemic risk, economic collapse, political collapse.