WASHINGTON — Come January, the United States might careen off the fiscal cliff. Or start rolling down the fiscal slope. Or, in a worst-case scenario, find itself staggering amid the hot ashes of a debtpocalypse.

One thing is certain. Absent Congressional action, the country faces more than half a trillion dollars in tax increases and spending cuts next year. Workers would have less take-home pay. Financial markets might panic. Eventually, the country could fall back into a recession.

Many politicians and pundits in Washington are terrified of it, and President Obama and Congressional leaders met Friday to publicly kick off a series of negotiations to avoid it. But that does not mean that anyone can quite agree on what to call it.

Indeed, in Washington, vigorous semantic debate has sprung up alongside the heated policy debate. And a thousand tortured metaphors have bloomed.