Etymologically
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damage

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈdæm.ɪdʒ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English damage,[2] borrowed from Old French damage (“loss caused by injury”), domage (modern dommage),[3][4] from dam, damme “loss, damage”,[3][5] from Latin damnum (“loss, hurt, damage, fine”),[3][4][2] the source of damn, with the suffix -age.[4][5] The verb is from Old French damagier, from the noun.[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Loss or detriment caused by injury: 1292,[6] probably before 1300 in Arthour and Merlin,[4] about 1300 in Etymonline.[3] The verb is from about 1330.[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Physical injury to a thing, reducing its value or usefulness, is from about 1374.[6] In law, damages, the money value of what was lost, is from about 1400 (1430 in the OED).[3][6] In the 14th and 15th centuries a damage could also be a misfortune, a pity.[6] Johnson (1755) defined it as “mischief; hurt; detriment”.[7] The colloquial sense “cost, expense”, as in what's the damage?, is by 1755.[3][6] Damage control is US Navy jargon by 1933.[3]

Timeline

  • 1292 – loss caused by injury.[6]
  • c. 1330 – verb, to damage.[4]
  • c. 1374 – physical injury to a thing.[6]
  • c. 1400 – damages in law.[3]
  • 1755 – cost, expense.[3][6]
  • 1933 – damage control.[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Physical harm that reduces the value, usefulness or normal function of something.
  2. Harmful effects: damage to his reputation.
  3. damages: Money awarded by a court as compensation for loss or injury.
  4. (informal) The cost: what's the damage?

Verb

  1. To harm or spoil; to injure.

Word family

  • damageability
  • damageable
  • damagingly
  • damager
  • damageableness
  • predamage
  • undamaged
  • redamage
  • damn
  • indemnity
  • condemn
  • damnation

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.