Oh God, not another disastar to befall us!
Why are the words disaster and catastrophe linked to and inspired by those tiny remote dots of light in the heavens? What on Earth can those miniscule planetary ‘stars’ do to humans and other planets?
Both the ancient and the modern characters for Mars in Chinese mean the ‘fire star’. Catastrophe is usually defined to mean the denouement of a tragic drama, but basically signifies a downfalling star and a deviation (dys)-aster of stars. Patten has counted and lists 369 words that are connected etymologically with the root of Mars, Ares, Bel, Indra, Tyr and other Martian gods. Practically all of them connote bad actions or feelings or experiences.
