catastrophe

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catastrophe

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• catastrophë (now rare)

From Ancient Greek καταστροφή (katastrophḗ), from καταστρέφω (katastréphō, “I overturn”), from κατά (katá, “down, against”) + στρέφω (stréphō, “I turn”).

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /kəˈtæstɹəfi/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ca‧tas‧tro‧phe

catastrophe (countable and uncountable, plural catastrophes)

1. Any large and disastrous event of great significance.

   The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophe.

   • 1896, Henry W[illiam] Lucy, “[Session 1894.] A Bad Beginning.”, in A Diary of the Home Rule Parliament, 1892-1895, London, Paris, Melbourne, Vic.: Cassell and Company, Limited, page 320:

     Last night, after the brief sitting of the House of Lords, and before catastrophe befell the Government in the Commons, I had a long chat with the Premier, in which he discussed the Home Rule question and his relations with it in perfectly frank manner.

   • 1913, H. G. Wells, “The New Source of Energy”, in The World Set Free‎^[1], New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, pages 54–55:

     Between these high lights accumulated disaster, social catastrophe.

   • 1964, Nikos Kazantzakis, Michael Cacoyannis, Zorba the Greek, spoken by Alexis Zorba (Anthony Quinn):

     Am I not a man? And is a man not stupid? I'm a man, so I married. Wife, children, house, everything. The full catastrophe.

   • 2019 May 28, Raymond Zhong, Carolyn Zhang, “Food Delivery Apps Are Drowning China in Plastic”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on May 28, 2019, Technology‎^[3]:

     For years, Mao Da, an environmental researcher, has studied the plastic industry in Wen’an County, near Beijing. Workers there used to sort through food and medical waste by hand, he said. Nonrecyclable material was buried in pits near farmland.
     “It was an environmental and public health catastrophe,” Mr. Mao said.

2. (insurance) A disaster beyond expectations.
3. (narratology) The dramatic event that initiates the resolution of the plot; the dénouement.
   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 286, column 2:

     Pat : he comes like the Cataſtrophe of the old Comedie : my Cue is villanous Melancholly, with a ſighe like Tom o’ Bedlam.

4. (mathematics) A type of bifurcation, where a system shifts between two stable states.

catastrophe f (plural catastrophes)

1. (archaic) Superseded spelling of catastrofe.

Borrowed from Latin catastropha, itself a borrowing from Ancient Greek καταστροφή (katastrophḗ).

• IPA^(key): /ka.tas.tʁɔf/

• Audio:

  (file)

catastrophe f (plural catastrophes)

1. catastrophe

   Synonym: désastre

• cata (informal)

• en catastrophe
• scénario catastrophe

catastrophe

1. inflection of catastropher:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “catastrophe”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.