183. Disaster (See also Shipwreck.)

1. Amoco Cadiz oil tanker broke up off Britanny coast; 1.6 million barrels spilled (1978). [Fr. Hist.: Facts (1978), 201, 202]
2. Angur-boda Utgard giantess, worker of disaster; literally, ‘anguish-boding.’ [Norse Myth.: Leach, 58]
3. Chicago fire conflagration destroyed most of city (1871). [Am. Hist.: Jameson, 94]
4. Deluge earth-covering flood that destroyed all but Noah’s family and animals in the ark. [O.T.: Genesis 6–8]
5. Deucalion’s Flood the Deluge of Greek legend. [Gk. Myth.: Benét, 266]
6. Evangeline concerns peaceful village vacated and destroyed during war. [Am. Lit.: “Evangeline” in Magill I, 261–263]
7. Fatal Vespers 2 Jesuits and 100 others killed in collapse of lecture hall. [Br. Hist.: Brewer Dictionary, 1127]
8. Gilgamesh epic Babylonian legend contains pre-Biblical ac-count of Flood. [Near East. Myth.: EB, IV: 542]
9. Hindenburg, the German airship blew up upon mooring in New Jersey (1937). [Am. Hist.: NCE, 43]
10. Johnstown Flood Pennsylvania city destroyed by flood (May 31, 1889); 2,200 lives lost. [Am. Hist.: NCE, 1427]
11. Lusitania British luxury liner sunk by German submarine in World War I. [Br. Hist.: EB (1963) XX, 518]
12. Pompeii Roman city buried by eruption of Mt. Vesuvius (79). [Rom. Hist.: NCE, 2187]
13. red cloud indicates disaster is impending. [Eastern Folklore: Jobes, 350]
14. San Francisco earthquake disaster claiming many lives and most of city (1906). [Am. Hist.: Jameson, 443–444]
15. Titanic British passenger ship sinks on maiden voyage (1912). [Br. Hist.: NCE, 2753]

dis·as·ter / diˈzastər/ • n. a sudden event, such as an accident or a natural catastrophe, that causes great damage or loss of life: 159 people died in the disaster | disaster struck within minutes of takeoff. ∎  [as adj.] denoting a genre of films that use natural or accidental catastrophe as the mainspring of plot and setting: a disaster movie. ∎  an event or fact that has unfortunate consequences: a string of personal disasters | reduced legal aid could spell financial disaster. ∎ inf. a person, act, or thing that is a failure: my perm is a total disaster.PHRASES: be a recipe for disaster be extremely likely to have unfortunate consequences: sky-high interest rates are a recipe for disaster.

disaster XVI. — F. désastre or its source It. disastro, f. dis- DIS- 2 + astro (:- L. astrum) STAR; lit. ‘unfavourable aspect of a star’.
So disastrous †ill-starred, ill-boding XVI; calamitous XVII. — F. désastreux — It. disastroso.