Etymologically
Log in

disastrous

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 25 October 2026 at 23:39. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • UK: /dɪˈzɑː.stɹəs/[1]
  • US: /dɪˈzæs.tɹəs/[1]

Etymology

Most dictionaries take it as borrowed from Middle French desastreux (now spelled désastreux), from Italian disastroso (“ill-starred”),[2][3][4][5][6] from disastro (“disaster”), the source of disaster.[2][4][5] The OED's revised entry instead analyses it as formed in English from the noun and -ous, modelled on the French word, which is recorded in 1557 meaning "unfortunate" and in 1571 meaning "very harmful", itself after the Italian.[7] Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com name both French and Italian as sources.[2][8] The Italian noun is formed from dis-, here a pejorative prefix, and astro (“star”), from Latin astrum, from Ancient Greek ἄστρον (ástron, “star”); its sense is astrological, a misfortune blamed on an unlucky star.[6] Compare Spanish desastroso.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Ill-fated, unlucky: 1586, in Pettie and Yong's translation of Guazzo's Civile Conuersation.[7][2] Etymonline dates it to the 1580s.[6]

Semantic evolution

The first sense followed the astrological idea of an unlucky star.[6] From 1598 the word could also mean ill-omened, foretelling disaster, a sense now archaic;[7][2] Johnson (1755) illustrated it with Milton's "disastrous twilight", defining it as gloomy and threatening misfortune.[9] The modern sense, causing great harm or ruin, is recorded from 1601,[7] about 1600 in Etymonline,[6] and gradually replaced the old one, which the OED last records in 1888 and the Shorter Oxford in the early 19th century.[7][4] From 1837 it was also used of something highly unsuccessful,[7] and Merriam-Webster records the weaker sense "extremely bad, terrible".[2]

Timeline

  • 1586 – ill-fated, unlucky (now obsolete).[7][2]
  • 1598 – ill-omened, foretelling disaster.[7]
  • 1601 – causing great harm or ruin; calamitous.[7]
  • 1837 – highly unsuccessful.[7]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Causing great damage, suffering or ruin; calamitous: a disastrous flood.[2][7]
  2. Very unsuccessful, or extremely bad: The team had a disastrous season.[2][7]
  3. (archaic) Ominous; threatening misfortune.[2][7][9]
  4. (obsolete, 1586–1888) Unlucky; ill-fated.[7][4][9]

Word family

  • disastrously
  • disastrousness
  • nondisastrous
  • undisastrous

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  9. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.