Hi, everyone. And welcome back to one of your favorite segments《 詞源考古研究所》 It Means What.

Whoo-hoo!!

Are you trying to be a ghost?

All right, hi, 安瀾.

Hi, Lulu, hi, everyone.

So in this segment, 安瀾and I, we're gonna explore some of the everyday words and phrases and explore the interesting history and background, and origin of these words. So what is the word for today or the phrase for today?

Today I've got a really fascinating word-disaster.

Way to make it negative. I thought it was something exciting, but it's disaster?

But it's a very interesting word.

Okay. But I thought disaster就是災難this is just a word, right? It's a really generic word.

No, take the word apart. So you have “dis”.

Like dis- as in dishonest, disarray.

Yep.

Dis- means it's negative, right?

It's negative.

-aster, like star? Bad star?

It literally means “dis”and “star”, so negative stars.

This have something to do with like star signs, astrology?

Yes, and no. So astro come... is used a lot in English, so for example astrology literally means the study of stars.

Astrology就是星象學上star signs, all these star signs.

But astronomy is the science of studying stars.

天文學.

That literally means the laws of stars.

Now the reason why astrology is ology is because astrology has been around longer than astronomy.

Interesting, but back to this, dis-aster, so bad or negative, under the stars, does this have something to do with like superstition, like when stars are not aligned and....

Well, the traditional belief is that the position of stars and planets can directly influence what happens on Earth.

So when something bad happens, it's not because of the person's fault. It's because the stars were not aligned properly or the stars were not in the correct position.

Is it true that...you know in Chinese history, even up to Qing Dynasty, there was like欽天監, there were specific, I think astrologers they were hired or they were maintained by the government, by the emperor, by the imperial court, as part of a very important part of the government because they would actually tell fortune of the country of everyone.

Exactly.

So many civilizations had this, the Egyptians had it, the Romans had it, and we even had it in the UK as well.

So think about Romeo and Julia, how they’re describe.

羅密歐朱麗葉. 我們在<四合一名著>里面講過叫star-crossed lover, yes.

Star-crossed meaning that they were basically born underneath crossing stars like they were not having the best of luck, best of star sign.

Exactly.

So star-crossed lovers literally means that they are fated to be unhappy. It's not going to end well because the stars are crossed, they're not in the proper position. So everyone knows the expression “star-crossed lovers”. But very few people realize is actually about the stars, it's about the position of the stars and that's where the word disaster comes from.

Disaster. So disaster when stars are not in the right position, then relationships are not meant to be, really bad things gonna happen, people are gonna get killed or hurt.

Exactly. And think about nowadays there are still so many people that use birth charts or they read their horoscopes.

Yes, horoscope is basically astrology.

Exactly.

And people still believe in it. Do you actually believe in star signs, astrology.

To be honest no.

Not at all?

No

What star sign are you?

I'm Taurus.

Sounds like typical Taurus.

Why?

I don't know, Taurus seems to be down to earth, no?

I guess so.

Very functional.

Yeah, but I think you can say that for many people, the thing is that I don't really believe in fate, and well, I say I don't believe in fate, I don't believe in star signs, but I think a little part of me does believe that something is meant to happen or not meant to happen.

I think you were always saying things like don't tempt fate.

Yes.

It's like although I don't有點寧可信其有, 不可信其無, even though you don't fully believe in it, but you don't want to challenge it.

Exactly.

So that's a phrase that we use a lot in English, “Don't tempt fate” or “Don't count your chickens before they're hatched”.

So don't start planning on things in the future.

But if you see all these natural disasters or man made disasters, do you think they're meant to happen to a certain extent? It's like, for example, every time there's a disaster happen that you always have voices as saying to all they brought it on themselves, this and that.

That's because people have been saying that for thousands and thousands of years, but natural disasters are just natural disasters. I would say man made disasters, people do bring it on themselves because normally it's because someone's done something wrong or done something very stupid.

Disaster and the adjective is disastrous. Yeah.

You know that there is a genre of film actually called disaster films.

Yes, I hate those.

Why?

Because they always show everyone really happy at the beginning and then everything goes really badly. I... it makes me feel very uncomfortable.

Yeah, but don't you feel like... I feel certain smugness, like I know most people watch disaster films like cautionary tales, but for me it's like I'm still alive. This is not happening to me.

But don't tempt fate.

That is true. That is true. Disaster films including things like earthquake and like, I don't know, volcano.

Well, we live in Beijing, I don't think there are any volcanoes here.

No, but earthquakes can be felt.

We wouldn't be under the attack of like tsunami or things like that. We barely have any water.

Probably not in Beijing,

Okay. So that is our discussion about the word “disaster”, which I just found out is a combination of Dis and aster, the stars.

Now leave us comment on this word. What else do you know about this word or what you want to ask? Or also give us a suggestion as in what kind of words and phrases you want us to talk about in this segment. Thank you, 安瀾for coming to the show.

Thanks, Lulu. Thanks, everyone.

We'll see you next time. Bye bye.