desastroso

Forms

desastroso (feminine desastrosa, masculine plural desastrosos, feminine plural desastrosas)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish desastre (“disaster”) + -oso.^[2][1] Corominas adds that the adjective was probably modelled on French désastreux, a word of the 16th century.^[3] French in turn took its adjective from Italian disastroso.^[1]

The noun desastre first meant “misfortune” and is a loan of Old Occitan desastre (“misfortune”), a word frequent in troubadour poetry, formed on astre (“star”), the good or bad star of a person's fate.^[3][4] That word goes back to Latin astrum, from Ancient Greek ἄστρον (ástron, “star”), the source also of astro.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record in the Old Spanish Textual Archive is a single use in Luis de Lucena's Repetición de amores y Arte de ajedrez, printed at Salamanca between 1496 and 1499.^[6] Corominas, by contrast, dates the word only from the Academy's dictionary of 1884.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The dictionaries of the 19th century treat it as a synonym of desastrado in its first sense, “ill-starred, unhappy”: Salvá's dictionary of 1846 and the Academy's edition of 1869 define it in this way.^[7][8] Domínguez, in the same years, gives “unlucky, fatal, calamitous” and also “ragged, wretched”.^[9] The Academy still kept only the reference to desastrado in 1884 and 1899.^[10][11]

The present-day use for anything very bad or that causes a disaster is a later addition, given as a second sense in the Academy's 2001 edition and in today's dictionary.^[12][2][13] In Cuba, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Puerto Rico it is also said of a person who behaves like a hooligan in public.^[14] In Leonese speech it describes a slovenly, dirty person, especially a woman.^[5]

Timeline

• 1444 – the base noun desastre is first recorded, in the sense “misfortune”.^[4][15]
• 1496 – a single use in Luis de Lucena's Repetición de amores.^[6]
• 1846 – Salvá and Domínguez enter the adjective in their dictionaries.^[7][9]
• 1869 – it appears in the Academy's dictionary as a synonym of desastrado.^[8]
• 1884 – the Academy's edition from which Corominas dates the word.^[3][4][10]
• 1991 – recorded in a Guadalajara newspaper in Mexico.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. disastrous; calamitous: causing or bringing a disaster: Las heladas de abril fueron desastrosas para la cosecha.^[2][13][1]
2. Very bad: Hizo una presentación desastrosa.^[2][14]
3. (dated) ill-fated, unhappy; the same as desastrado.^[2][8]
4. (Cuba, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico) Of a person: behaving like a hooligan, causing damage or trouble in public.^[14]

Word family

• desastrosamente

Related words

• desastre
• desastrado
• astro
• French désastreux
• Italian disastroso

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. desastroso
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 385
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. astro
5. ^ a b Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. desastroso, -a
6. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org
7. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 364
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 256
9. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 565
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 355
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 329
12. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. desastroso
13. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. desastroso
14. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. desastroso
15. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 65
16. ^ 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. desastroso