disaster
pronunciation
How to pronounce disaster in British English:
UK [dɪˈzɑːstə(r)]
How to pronounce disaster in American English:
US [dɪˈzæstər]
-
- Noun:
- a state of extreme (usually irremediable) ruin and misfortune
- an event resulting in great loss and misfortune
- an act that has disastrous consequences
Word Origin
- disaster
- disaster: [16] The word disaster has astrological connotations. It comes, perhaps via French désastre, from Italian disastro; this was a backformation from disastrato, literally ‘ill-starred’, a compound adjective formed from the pejorative prefix dis- and astro ‘star’, a descendant of Latin astrum ‘star’. This in turn came from Greek astron ‘star’, source of English astronomy and related to English star. So the underlying meaning of the word is ‘malevolent astral influence’. Provençal has the parallel malastre ‘misfortune’.
- disaster (n.)
- 1590s, from Middle French désastre (1560s), from Italian disastro "ill-starred," from dis-, here merely pejorative (see dis-) + astro "star, planet," from Latin astrum, from Greek astron (see star (n.)). The sense is astrological, of a calamity blamed on an unfavorable position of a planet.
Synonym
Example
- 1. Investors believed disaster had been averted .
- 2. So far rust has not caused a disaster .
- 3. New government spending on disaster reconstruction is expected to help offset weaker overseas demand .
- 4. Surprise spells disaster for people seeking change .
- 5. It has taken even longer to fully understand that his life was a disaster .