casualty

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A person killed or injured in an accident, disaster, or war.

   There were several casualties in the train crash.

2. 2
   noun

   A person or thing that is harmed or destroyed as a result of an event or decision.

   The small bookshop was an early casualty of the new shopping mall.

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.

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