casualty
UK /ˈkaʒʊ.əlti/ · US /ˈkæʒu.əlti/ noun
Forms casualties casuality
- noun Something that happens by chance, especially an unfortunate event; an accident, a disaster.
- noun A person suffering from injuries or who has been killed due to an accident or through an act of violence.
- noun (proscribed) Specifically, a person who has been killed (not only injured) due to an accident or through an act of violence; a fatality.
- noun (military) A person in military service who becomes unavailable for duty, for any reason (notably death, injury, illness, capture, or desertion).
- noun An incidental charge or payment.
- noun Someone or something adversely affected by a decision, event or situation.
- noun (obsolete) Chance nature; randomness.
Synonyms
fortune A&E accident and emergency emergency department emergency room emergency emergency ward E. R. E.R. ER casualty department casualty ward luck injured party fatal accident
Etymology
From casual, from Middle French casuel, from Medieval Latin casualitas and Late Latin cāsuālis (“happening by chance”), from Latin cāsus (“event”) (English case), from cadere (“to fall”). Originally meaning “a chance event” (compare casual, as in “casual encounter”), it developed a negative meaning as “an unfortunate event”, especially the loss of a person.
Webster’s 1913
- noun That which comes without design or without being foreseen; contingency.
- noun Any injury of the body from accident; hence, death, or other misfortune, occasioned by an accident; as, an unhappy casualty.
Etymology [F. casualité, LL. casualitas.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “casualty”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details