Words & WritingGreek → English
Catastrophe
/kəˈtæstrəfi/noun
A sudden disaster causing great damage or suffering.
The Greek roots
κατά
katá
down
στρέφω
stréphō
to turn
Literally: “a turning down”
The story of the word
In Greek dramatic theory καταστροφή is technical: the final turn of the plot, the point where the action resolves. It need not be bad, and a comedy has a catastrophe too. English borrowed it in the 1530s in that theatrical sense and slid toward disaster through tragedy, where the last turn is usually a death; στρέφω also gives apostrophe, a turning away, and boustrophedon, writing that runs back and forth as the ox ploughs.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 1530s
Same family
apostrophestrophecataclysm
In a sentence
The harvest failed twice running, and the second failure was the catastrophe.