desastre

Forms

desastre m (plural desastres)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Occitan desastre (“misfortune”), a word frequent in troubadour poetry.^[2][3][4][1] The Occitan noun is formed on astre (“star”), in the sense of a good or evil star, with the pejorative prefix des-.^[2][5] The star noun is from Latin astrum, from Ancient Greek ἄστρον (ástron, “star”).^[2][5]

Italian disastro, first recorded in the 14th century, is formed in the same way, and French désastre was borrowed from it in 1537.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is Juan Fernández de Heredia's Libro de actoridades (1376–1396): no desastre among friends is as dangerous as flattery.^[8] Heredia uses it several more times in his translation of Plutarch in 1379–1384, for a calamity that a city has to repair.^[8] Corominas dates it from Juan de Mena (1444), in the sense “unhappiness”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija rendered it by Latin infelicitas and infortunium, and Covarrubias in 1611 defined it as a lamentable misfortune attributed to the stars.^[9][10] The Autoridades explained it as made of des and astro.^[11] Beside “misfortune” it came to mean “catastrophe”, and Moliner adds a crushing defeat in war.^[2][12] The DLE now also uses it of anything of very bad quality or result, and of a person who does everything badly.^[4][12] The derivative desastrado is recorded from 1438, and desastroso, probably modelled on French désastreux, from the Academy's dictionary of 1884.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1376–1396 – Juan Fernández de Heredia's Libro de actoridades uses desastre.^[8]
• 1438 – first record of desastrado.^[3]
• 1444 – Juan de Mena, Corominas's first record.^[2][3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin equivalents.^[9]
• 1537 – first record in the Americas, in Santa Marta.^[13]
• 1611 – Covarrubias attributes such misfortunes to the stars.^[10]
• 1884 – desastroso enters the Academy's dictionary.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A great misfortune; a disaster, catastrophe: La riada fue un desastre para el pueblo.^[4][1][12]
2. A very grave defeat in war.^[12]
3. Something very bad in quality, result, organisation or appearance; a mess: El viaje de vuelta fue un desastre.^[4][1]
4. A person who is clumsy or incompetent, or for whom everything goes wrong: Soy un desastre para las fechas.^[4][1]

Word family

• desastroso
• desastrado

Related words

• astro
• astroso
• Italian disastro
• French désastre

Usage notes

Zona de desastre is a disaster area, and desastre natural a natural disaster.^[4][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 385
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. astro
4. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. desastre
5. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. desastre
6. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli, p. s.v. disastro
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. désastre
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. desastre
9. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 330
10. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 651
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 109
12. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. desastre
13. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. desastre