Via SciSpace.com (SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics)
INTRODUCTION
“Catastrophe” is a word that creates a reaction. When a news source labels an event as a catastrophe, one expects that certain criteria, however arbitrary or subjective, will be met. Years of writers and reporters pair the word “catastrophe” with adjectives like “great,” “lamentable,” “terrible,” and “horrific,” and these words are meant to inspire fear and concern. The history of “catastrophe,” however, is far broader than its present connotation. The Greek roots of the word, its use in drama, its shift in meaning as it emerged in popular literature, and its extension of connotation must be examined in order to understand how catastrophe shapes culture.
There are many issues surrounding the definition of “catastrophe.” The first is its original definition and use in Greek. The word is a combination of the prefix κατα-, meaning “down,” and the verb στρεφειν, meaning “to turn.” The word’s initial meaning incorporated a sense of a reversal of fate. As such, the original usage of the word garnered a theatrical connotation, referring in particular to the turning point in a drama.1
The early meaning and definition of the word, however, gave way to a reimagining of “catastrophe” in 1748. The Oxford English Dictionary records the first use of “catastrophe” to mean “sudden disaster”2 in the 1748 publication of A Voyage Round the World, in the Years MDCCXL, I, II, III, IV, by George Anson....
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