A landslide occurs when a rocks and land are loosened from the underlying bedrock and move down a slope rapidly. In terms of damage and deaths, the landslide is often underrated. David Petley, a geographer, reported that over 32,000 people had been killed in seven years 2004 in 2,620 separate fatal landslides. The recent fatal landslide near Hiroshima is one of many this year.
It originally appeared in English as landslip with landslide taking over in the late 1800s.
But it was in the New York Times on 4 November 1888 that a new meaning for landslide was used for the first time. There was a clear victory in an election, a “veritable landslide”. Since then landslide has been the standard way of describing a large political victory, of one party or person sweeping away all the opposition. Speaking at a dinner with journalists in 1958, after listening to a speech which accused the Kennedy clan of wanting to buy its way to the presidency. J.F. Kennedy pulled out a fake telegram “I have just received the following telegram from my generous Daddy. It says, “Dear Jack: Don’t buy a single vote more than is necessary. I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay for a landslide.” In the 1960 election Kennedy received only 0.17% more votes than Nixon, but due to the American electoral system still won by a landslide.
