Loterre: SAGE: disasters

... > sociology > environmental, urban and regional sociology > environmental sociology > society > disasters

... > psychology > behavior mechanisms > human development > health and well-being > disasters

social science subjects > sociology > social problems > disasters

... > sociology > social problems > social problems encyc > population and environment > disasters

... > population characteristics > health > public health > emergencies > disasters

disasters

The word disaster originally contained an astrological referent: the pejorative prefix dis, meaning “away from,” attached to the Latin astrum, meaning “star.” An ill-starred occurrence, much like its synonym “catastrophe” (that also contains the word star), the initial paradigm is that of disaster as a malevolent astral influence. Hence, the notion of disaster as an exceptional event that creates imbalance, a shift in the scales, or better yet, a destruction of the normal order of things. [Source: Encyclopedia of Deception; Disasters]

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