katamari

English

Etymology

From Japanese 固(かた)まり (katamari, “clump”), popularized by the 2004 video game Katamari Damacy and its sequels, in which players have to roll everyday objects into huge balls.

Noun

katamari (plural katamari or katamaris)

Something which rolls up other objects, growing increasingly large.
- 2013, S Peter Davis, Occam's Nightmare, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 5:
  ... a lawyer from Washington says he met Obama on Mars after listening to David Wilcock discuss jump rooms on UFOs, somewhere back behind all the extra details that have been tacked on at every point in this chain like a katamari
- 2017 March 14, Max Wirestone, The Astonishing Mistakes of Dahlia Moss, Hachette UK, →ISBN:
  Also, like a katamari, she tended to destroy things in her path. I would miss her. Hopefully marriage wouldn't change her too much.
- 2022 March 20, Douglas Palermo, 2021: A Year Inverse, iUniverse, →ISBN:
  It's like a Katamari effect. It would take only the slightest hint of a revolution to roll it all up.
- 2022 October 4, Annie Duke, Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away, Random House, →ISBN:
  Sunk costs snowball, like a katamari. The resources you have already spent make it less likely you will quit, which makes it more likely you will accumulate additional sunk costs, which makes it again less likely you will quit […]

Synonyms

snowball, snowball effect

Japanese

Romanization

katamari

Rōmaji transcription of かたまり