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by rwbaskette 1396 days ago
εὖ : well/good κατα- : back/against στρέφω : I turn/twist

It looked funny pairing for bit of Greek I know until I read the link and realized it wasn’t really Greek.

2 comments

You weren’t far off

> The writer J. R. R. Tolkien coined the word by affixing the Greek prefix eu, meaning good, to catastrophe

From the New Oxford Dictionary

> Catastrophe: mid 16th century (in the sense 'denouement'): from Latin catastropha, from Greek katastrophé 'overturning, sudden turn', from kata- 'down' + strophe 'turning' (from 'down strephein 'to turn').

It's Greek for deus ex machina!