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casualty. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
casualty, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
casualty in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
casualty you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Alternative forms
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.
Pronunciation
Noun
casualty (countable and uncountable, plural casualties)
- Something that happens by chance, especially an unfortunate event; an accident, a disaster.
- 1756, Samuel Johnson, “The Life of Sir Thomas Browne” in Thomas Browne, Christian Morals, 2nd edition, London: J. Payne, p. xx,
- The course of his education was like that of others, such as put him little in the way of extraordinary casualties.
- A person suffering from injuries or who has been killed due to an accident or through an act of violence.
- (proscribed) Specifically, a person who has been killed (not only injured) due to an accident or through an act of violence; a fatality.
- (military) A person in military service who becomes unavailable for duty, for any reason (notably death, injury, illness, capture, or desertion).
- (British) Clipping of casualty department: the accident and emergency department of a hospital providing immediate treatment.
- Synonyms: A&E, accident and emergency; (US) emergency department, emergency room
- An incidental charge or payment.
- Someone or something adversely affected by a decision, event or situation.
1962 December, “Beyond the Channel: Switzerland: Federal aid for three minor lines”, in Modern Railways, page 418:Among recent casualties is the S.B.B.'s branch from Nyon to Divonne-les-Bains, just across the French frontier, closed to all traffic at the commencement of the winter service.
2012 March 4, Alice Rawsthorn, “Farewell, Pocket Calculator?”, in The New York Times:Today, the pocket calculator is a dying product, a casualty of digitization, which has been relegated to the role of a graphic icon on phone and computer screens rather than an object in its own right, but back in the early 1970s, it was at the forefront of consumer technology.
- (obsolete) Chance nature; randomness.
- , NYRB 2001, vol.1, p.327-8:
- The non-necessary follow; of which, saith Fuchsius, no art can be made, by reason of their uncertainty, casualty, and multitude
Usage notes
The term casualty is sometimes used to mean “a killed person”; in more careful use this is referred to as a fatality, and casualty instead means “killed or injured”.
Synonyms
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
an accident, a disaster
- Armenian: դժբախտ պատահար (džbaxt patahar)
- Bulgarian: авария (bg) f (avarija)
- Catalan: accident (ca) m, desastre (ca), calamitat (ca)
- Finnish: onnettomuus (fi)
- French: accident (fr) m
- German: Unfall (de) m, Unglück (de) n, Unglücksfall (de) m, Kalamität (de) f, Desaster (de) n
- Hungarian: baleset (hu), sérülés (hu)
- Malayalam: അപകടം (ml) (apakaṭaṁ), അത്യാഹിതം (ml) (atyāhitaṁ)
- Polish: ofiary nvir, straty nvir
- Russian: происше́ствие (ru) (proisšéstvije), несча́стный слу́чай (ru) (nesčástnyj slúčaj)
- Spanish: accidente (es), desastre (es), calamidad (es)
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person
- Albanian: please add this translation if you can
- Armenian: տուժող (hy) (tužoġ), զոհ (hy) (zoh), զոհ կամ վիրավոր (zoh kam viravor)
- Belarusian: пацярпе́лы m (pacjarpjély), ахвя́ра (be) f (axvjára)
- Bulgarian: пострадали (bg) pl (postradali), жертви (bg) pl (žertvi)
- Catalan: baixa (ca) f, víctima (ca)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 傷亡者, 伤亡者 (shāngwáng zhě), 死傷者, 死伤者 (sǐshāng zhě), (number of casualties) 死傷人數, 死伤人数 (sǐshāng rénshù)
- Czech: oběť (cs) f
- Danish: tilskadekommet c, offer (da) n
- Dutch: slachtoffer (nl)
- Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
- Estonian: please add this translation if you can
- Finnish: uhri (fi), kuolonuhri (fi)
- French: victime (fr) m or f, blessé (fr) m
- Galician: baixa (gl) f, víctima (gl)
- Georgian: დაშავებული (dašavebuli), დაჭრილი (dač̣rili), მოკლული (moḳluli)
- German: Opfer (de), Verletzter (de) m, Verwundeter (de) m, Verunglückter m, Toter (de) m, Gefallener (de) m, Verlust (de) m, Ausfall (de) m, Todesfall (de) m, Todesopfer (de) n, Unfallopfer (de) n
- Hebrew: חָלָל (he) m (ḥalál)
- Hungarian: (victim) áldozat (hu), (injured, wounded) sérült (hu), sebesült (hu), (dead) halott (hu)
- Icelandic: mannfall n (uncountable)
- Indonesian: korban (id)
- Italian: ferito (it) m
- Japanese: 犠牲者 (ja) (ぎせいしゃ, giseisha)
- Latvian: please add this translation if you can
- Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
- Maori: pūkeko, kaiākiko, ngohi (mi) (if killed in battle)
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: offer (no) n
- Nynorsk: offer n
- Polish: poszkodowany (pl) m, ofiara (pl) f
- Portuguese: baixa (pt) f
- Romanian: mort (ro) m, victimă (ro) f
- Russian: же́ртва (ru) m or f (žértva), поте́ря (ru) f (potérja) (usually plural), пострада́вший (ru) m (postradávšij)
- Serbo-Croatian: žrtva (sh), stradalnik (sh), postradali (sh)
- Slovak: please add this translation if you can
- Spanish: baja (es) f, víctima (es) f
- Swedish: olycksoffer n, offer (sv) n
- Tarifit: aniyzum m
- Turkish: please add this translation if you can
- Ukrainian: потерпі́лий m (poterpílyj), же́ртва f (žértva), офі́ра f (ofíra), постражда́лий m (postraždályj), ушко́джений m (uškódženyj)
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accident and emergency department of a hospital
— see also emergency room
References