Exhibit展品
disaster
/dɪˈzæstər/
Why does a disaster have anything to do with stars?灾难为什么会和星星有关？
Today此刻
A sudden event that causes great harm.造成重大伤害的突发之事。
Historical历史形态
Take it apart拆开来看
Historical morphology. Italian built disastro from a negative prefix and a word for star. Modern English does not mint new words on this pattern.这是历史形态。意大利语用一个否定前缀和一个表示星的词造成 disastro。现代英语不再按这个样子造新词。
Travel through time穿过时间
Greek希腊语
astron
star星
The star inside the later compound. Ancient Greek did not hand English a ready-made word for disaster.后来那个复合词里的星。古希腊语没有把一个现成的“灾难”交给英语。
Italian意大利语
disastro
ill-starred, misfortune星象不利，不幸
The compound is formed here.复合词在这里形成。
French法语
désastre
misfortune不幸
English · later 1500s英语 · 十六世纪后半
disaster
catastrophe灾祸
How the meaning moved意义如何移动
01 · Italian01 · 意大利语
an unfavorable star一颗不吉利的星
02 · Italian and French02 · 意大利语与法语
bad fortune坏运气
0303
a calamity一场灾祸
04 · modern English04 · 现代英语
a catastrophe一场灾难
Story故事
When the sky explained human fate当天空被用来解释人的命运
The night sky was once asked to explain a life. Greek had two famous words for that attention. Astronomia named the effort to order the stars. Astrologia named an account of what they meant. For a long time the line between them was thin, and the same heavens fed both.
Italian built a darker compound. Disastro set dis-, a prefix of ill and reversal, against astro, a star. An unfavorable star. A misfortune read off the sky. The word did not begin as a technical name for earthquakes and wrecks. It began as a reason fortune had turned.
French carried it north as désastre. English took it up in the later sixteenth century. A disaster could then be named without anyone looking up. The catastrophe stayed. The star went quiet.
It is still in the word.
夜空曾经被请来解释一个人的一生。希腊语里有两个著名的词负责这种注视。Astronomia 给星辰排序。Astrologia 讲述星辰意味着什么。很长一段时间里，两者的界线很薄，同一片天供养着两边。
意大利语造了一个更暗的复合词。Disastro 把表示不利、颠倒的前缀 dis- 安在 astro（星）前面。一颗不吉利的星。一种从天上读出来的不幸。这个词起初不是地震和海难的技术名称。它起初是运气转向的一个理由。
法语把它往北带成 désastre。英语在十六世纪后半接了过去。此后一场灾难不必抬头也能被叫出名字。灾祸留下了。那颗星安静了。
它还在这个词里。
Keep wandering继续漫游
ASTRO
Further rooms更远的房间
Research notes研究笔记
Confidence · High把握 · 高
The outline is the ordinary account in historical dictionaries.轮廓与历史词典里的通行说法一致。
Sources出处
An outline for the visitor, not a critical edition.给访客的纲要，不是校勘本。