black swan event
n.— «On Black Monday, October 19, 1987, the Dow Jones index, for reasons still being debated, fell 508 points, almost a quarter of its total. (The current equivalent, for comparison’s sake, would be a 3,200-point loss on one day.) The drop turned out to be a “black swan event,” a weirdly poetic economist’s term meaning, basically, a fluke (though few people remember it, the Dow still eked out a positive finish for the year).» —“The Stench of ‘89″ by Michael Idov New York Magazine (New York City) Feb. 4, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A documentary film called My Beautiful Stutter follows youngsters at a summer camp specifically for stutterers. It’s a place for finding acceptance, support, and confidence for navigating the larger world. And:, “The High Priestess of...
The words tough, through, and dough all end in O-U-G-H. So why don’t they rhyme? A lively new book addresses the many quirks of English by explaining the history of words and phrases. And: have you ever been in a situation where a group makes...
I believe Nassim Taleb coined this term in his book “Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and the Markets”, and then explored it further in “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable”