tragedy
n.n. a very sad event that causes a lot of suffering or death. The word can also describe a type of serious play or story that has an unhappy ending.
n. An event causing great suffering, destruction, and distress, such as a serious accident or natural disaster. Also refers to a genre of drama dealing with such events and having an unhappy ending. Countable.
The sudden closing of the factory was a tragedy for the town.
The community held a vigil to mourn the tragedy and support the victims' families after the fire.
For the ancient Greeks, tragedy was not merely sad entertainment but a civic ritual exploring the relationship between human flaws and inescapable divine will.
Middle English tragedie from Old French tragedie, itself from Latin tragoedia, in turn from Ancient Greek τραγῳδία (tragōidía), a compound of τράγος (trágos, “male goat”) and ᾠδή (ōidḗ, “song”).
The ancients were already arguing about why a dramatic form took its name from livestock. The Dorians, whose early performances featured goat-satyrs prancing across the orchestra, provide one candidate. A second, offered by the modern Hellenist Robert Beekes, suggests the goat may simply have been the prize awarded to the winning playwright — a practical animal, dispatched for its meat rather than its muse. After twenty-five centuries the question remains unsettled, though the word has long since left paddock and stagehand behind.