Upheaves

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. To violently lift or toss an object, causing disruption or disturbance while simultaneously undergoing a profound change that affects stability and order
2. To forcefully elevate or displace, leading to disorder or chaos, while also experiencing a major alteration that results in instability or upheaval
3. Raises or turns something over violently, causing a disturbance ; experiences a significant and disruptive transformation

Etymology: "Upheaves" is the third-person singular present form of "upheave", so the verb is the one to trace. It descends from Old English "ūpāhebban", meaning to lift up, raise up, or even to rise in the air, built from "up" and "heave". The same pairing of "up" and a lifting verb shows up in the Dutch "opheffen" and the German "aufheben", which means both "to lift" and "to cancel". The English verb kept the plain physical sense of raising something, and the figurative sense of violent overturning developed later from that base. Within the noun's sense of "sudden major changes", the image is of the ground itself being heaved upward and thrown into disorder, as when the earth shifts or a society is shaken. The surprising thread is that the physical act of lifting and the abstract idea of upheaval are the same word from the start, with the violent-change sense growing out of the heaving motion rather than being a separate coinage.

Synonyms: disturbances, disruptions, turmoil, upheavals, convulsions

Antonyms: calm, stability, peace, order, tranquility