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START / NODE 29Present-Day English1567–today
disaster
A catastrophe whose name preserves an astrological model of misfortune: an unfavorable star.
“Disaster is fossilized astrology. Its ancestry records a “bad star,” not a generic accident.”OPEN COMPLETE WORD DOSSIER ↗
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01
PARENT ROUTES1 REVIEWED RELATIONSHIP
Present-Day Englishdisaster
a sudden calamitous event
↑GO DEEPER
French · 16th centurydésastremisfortune; calamity
- SOUND CHANGE
- English adapted the French form, including stress and final syllable.
- SEMANTIC CHANGE
- The inherited calamity sense became the general modern category of disaster.
- SCHOLAR
- Merriam-Webster editors
- CONFIDENCE
- established
- CHRONOLOGY
- English first known use: 1567.
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