Also found as Catastrapharian.
1. Someone who overplays or otherwise overstates negative events. Catastropharians thus create a ‘mountain out of mole hill’ or worse. Such usage also includes the hypochondriac’s reaction to describing a trifling malady such as a hangnail.
2. Someone who invents catastrophes when there are none. This would be akin to Chicken Little’s ‘the sky is falling’ pronouncement upon experiencing rain.
3. Alternately, someone who literally takes a bad situation and turns it into something worse, thereby creating a catastrophe.
“The catastropharian argument is, in a nutshell, that the larger financial obligations of an older population, when spread over a smaller base of younger workers, will create a ruinous fiscal overhang…"
Goldsmith, Jeff. The Long Baby Boom: An Optimistic Vision for a Graying Generation. JHU Press. 2008. p. 35.
1. Someone who overplays or otherwise overstates negative events. Catastropharians thus create a ‘mountain out of mole hill’ or worse. Such usage also includes the hypochondriac’s reaction to describing a trifling malady such as a hangnail.
2. Someone who invents catastrophes when there are none. This would be akin to Chicken Little’s ‘the sky is falling’ pronouncement upon experiencing rain.
3. Alternately, someone who literally takes a bad situation and turns it into something worse, thereby creating a catastrophe.
“The catastropharian argument is, in a nutshell, that the larger financial obligations of an older population, when spread over a smaller base of younger workers, will create a ruinous fiscal overhang…"
Goldsmith, Jeff. The Long Baby Boom: An Optimistic Vision for a Graying Generation. JHU Press. 2008. p. 35.
According to John Richardson, George W Bush qualified as a catastropharian for his administration’s Middle East policy.
“the great catastropharian ....” John Richardson, 15 Dec 2006,
“the great catastropharian ....” John Richardson, 15 Dec 2006,
by d-bits April 8, 2019