The notion of nefarious comes from the Latin word nefastus . It is an adjective that can be used to describe a moment, a day or another period of time that is adverse, disastrous or fateful .
For example: "Yesterday I had a disastrous day: I fought with my girlfriend, I argued with my boss and I lost my glasses" , "2018 was a disastrous year for the singer, since he lost a million-dollar lawsuit initiated by his former representative and also "He had to fight against several health problems " , "The team from the capital is having a disastrous month, with four defeats in the same number of games played."
The thing or individual that, due to its characteristics or conditions, is considered hateful or detestable is also mentioned as disastrous: "Ramírez was a disastrous governor who caused poverty to grow throughout the region" , "This restaurant is disastrous: the waiters "They serve poorly, the food is horrible and the prices are very high" , "My neighbor is a disastrous man who respects no one and is always willing to argue for any reason."
Take the case of a soccer stadium whose playing field is full of holes , with areas without grass . Furthermore, the lines that mark the areas and edges are almost imperceptible. Given this situation, journalists mention that the field in question is in a dire state .
Suppose, on the other hand, that two basketball teams are facing each other with a very even score. In the last quarter, however, one of the teams missed sixteen of twenty shots at the basket and lost the ball eight times. Due to that disastrous period , said team ends up suffering a clear defeat.
In the examples just presented we can notice certain differences in the use of this word, although at first glance its meaning is always the same. While a bad restaurant is bad in an extraordinary way, a bad day is accompanied by misfortune , which is to say that it is not bad in itself. The first stands out for the terrible service, the lack of experience in preparing the dishes and the too high prices, but no one forces us to eat there; A day filled with bad news or terrible events, on the other hand, may be impossible to avoid.
The same can be applied to other examples, which are divided into two groups: one characterized by the poor quality of the nouns that are classified as harmful, and another by causing or dragging misfortune for those who must experience it. In this second group are the nouns that designate portions of time , such as "moment", "week" or "season".
The approach taken by the issuer in each case is different: when describing a service or product as harmful, their level of objectivity is usually much higher than when using this adjective to describe a time period. This is where superstition comes into play, a topic that strongly divides people into those who believe in it and those who look for an objective cause for each event.
Below we will see a list of the most common synonyms of the term disastrous , some of which have already been mentioned in the previous paragraphs: unfortunate, disastrous , unfortunate , sad, ominous, fateful and unfortunate . The most normal antonyms, on the other hand, are happy, fortunate and auspicious .
Among these words, we find some whose synonyms further expand the meaning of disastrous. Such is the case of ominous , which can be defined as "despicable" or "abominable." We can say, therefore, that disastrous does not have any positive nuance, as happens with other terms whose meaning depends on the context; In this case, there is no situation in which it acquires a hopeful tinge.