calamity

Middle English calamytey, borrowed from Middle French & Latin; Middle French calamité, borrowed from Latin calamitÄ?t-, calamitÄ?s "disaster, misfortune, military defeat," going back to an unattested adjective *calamo- or *calami-, presumably, "injured, affected by misfortune or defeat" + -tÄ?t-, -tÄ?s -TY; *calamo-/*calami- perhaps going back to Indo-European *klÌ¥h₂-em-o/i-, adjective derivative from a verbal base *kelh₂- "hit, strike" — more at clastic

Note: Later Roman writers associated calamitÄ?s by folk etymology with calamus "reed, cane," taking it to literally mean "plague affecting crops." A negated form of the Latin adjective underlying calamitÄ?s can be seen in the word incolumis "unharmed, safe and sound, undamaged," going back to *enkalamis. (The second -a- was presumably weakened to -i- and then backed and rounded to -u- before a labial consonant, with the first -a-, now in the second syllable, reducing and rounding to -o- before velar l.) Initial -aCa- in calamitÄ?s, rather than -aCi- by vowel weakening, is most likely the result of the so-called alacer rule, by which a short vowel in an open medial syllable retains its quality if it is identical to the vowel of the initial syllable (the word alacer "brisk, lively" exemplifying the rule—compare allegro entry 2).