dezastru

Forms

dezastru n (plural dezastre)^[1] Heliade-Rădulescu spells it desastru, with a plural desastruri: „bici de desastruri ca ciumă, foamete” “a scourge of disasters such as plague and famine”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French désastre, as DEX, MDA2, MDN, Tiktin and the DLR state.^{[4][3][5][6][2]} DELR, DN, Scriban and Wiktionary also name borrowed from Italian disastro, and DELR takes the old variant disastru from Italian alone.^[7][8][9][1]

The French word was borrowed in 1537 from Italian.^[10] The Italian word, recorded from the 14th century, means literally “unfavourable star”: it is formed on astro (“star”) with the pejorative prefix dis-.^[11][7][12] DELR traces the prefix to Ancient Greek δυς- (dus-, “bad, difficult”) and the noun to Latin astrum, from ἄστρον (ástron).^[7] Nocentini notes that Occitan dezastre is a parallel formation, the source of Spanish desastre.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1835.^[6] DELR and MDA2 date it to Heliade-Rădulescu's works, DELR to 1847.^[7][3] The DLR's first quotation, from Maior, already has the sense “great calamity”: the Romans fled to the town of Serra, all those who had not fallen in that disaster.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The main sense has stayed “great calamity, catastrophe”, of wars, epidemics and natural events.^[2][4] MDA2 adds “loss”, a figurative sense of great grief or suffering, and the economic and social sense of ruin or disorganisation.^[3] The adjective dezastruos “disastrous” followed in 1862, from French désastreux; an earlier adjective dezastric of 1832 did not last.^[7]

Timeline

• 1832 – the adjective disastric “disastrous”, in Săulescu.^[7]
• 1835 – first record of the noun, according to Tiktin.^[6]
• 1847 – desastruri in Heliade-Rădulescu, DELR's first record.^[7][2]
• 1862 – dezastruos “disastrous”.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A great calamity, a catastrophe: a tragic event of great extent with very grave consequences.^[4][2][1]
2. (rare) A heavy loss.^[3]
3. (figurative) Great grief or suffering.^[3]
4. (figurative) ruin, disorganisation of economic or social life: dezastrul economic de după război.^[3]

Word family

• dezastric
• dezastruos

Related words

• astru
• Italian disastro

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. dezastru
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 691
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 306
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. dezastru
6. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. dezastru
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. dezastru
8. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. dezastru
9. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 418
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. désastre
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. disastro