How people blamed the stars for their bad luck, and gave us disaster, influence and consider. Tap ▶ to hear each step read aloud.
For thousands of years people believed that the stars and planets controlled their lives. Astrologers watched the sky to see if the stars were good or bad.
In Italian, dis- (bad) + astro (star) gave disastro: an evil star. When a star was badly placed, terrible luck followed.
French made it désastre, and English disaster, in the 1500s.
Later people stopped blaming the stars, but the word stayed: a disaster is a terrible event.
Examples: a natural disaster
, a shipwreck was a disaster
.
Today we use it for everyday failures too.
Examples: The cake was a disaster.
My haircut is a disaster!
The stars left other words too:
| astronomy, astronaut | Greek astron, star |
| influence, influenza | flowing in from the stars |
| consider | probably: look at the stars |
| star-crossed | born under unlucky stars |
Désastre and astre are the same star. Être né sous une bonne étoile is the happy opposite.
“A disaster is a bad star.”