Etymology

catastrophic

C3A1T1A1S1T1R1O1P3H4I1C3

Today it means: Of or pertaining to a catastrophe. Full definition →

Ancient Greek καταστροφικός
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Ancient Greek · learned borrowing fromκαταστροφικός
  2. English todaycatastrophic

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek καταστροφικός (katastrophikós). By surface analysis, catastrophe + -ic.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.