detrimental

Etymology

It is formed from English detriment + -al.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} Detriment is from French détriment or directly from Latin dētrīmentum (“a rubbing off; loss, damage”),^[4][6][7][8] from the stem of dēterō (“to rub away, wear away; to impair”),^[4][6][9][8] formed from dē- (“away”) and terō (“to rub, wear”).^[4][6][9][8] The American Heritage Dictionary traces the verb to the root Proto-Indo-European *terə- (“to rub, turn”).^[9] The same Latin verb gives trite and detritus.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Causing loss or damage; harmful: Merriam-Webster dates the first known use to 1590 and the Shorter Oxford to the late 16th century,^[10][3] while the OED and Barnhart first record it in 1656, in Thomas Blount's Glossographia.^[2][4] Etymonline dates it to the 1650s.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The adjective has kept its first meaning, harmful or injurious, usually followed by to.^[2][11][3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "mischievous; harmful; causing loss".^[12] In the 19th century it was also a noun, first recorded in 1831: in society slang a detrimental was a younger brother of the heir to an estate, and so, being without fortune, an ineligible suitor.^{[2][13][10][6]} Etymonline explains such a suitor as one who wasted the time of a young woman looking for a husband.^[6] The Shorter Oxford marks the noun as archaic slang.^[3]

Timeline

• 1590 – first known use, according to Merriam-Webster.^[10]
• 1656 – causing loss or damage, in Blount's Glossographia.^[2][4]
• 1755 – Johnson defines it as mischievous, harmful, causing loss.^[12]
• 1831 – noun, in society slang, a younger son of an heir, an ineligible suitor.^[2][13][10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Causing harm or damage; harmful or injurious, usually followed by to: Lack of sleep is detrimental to concentration.^{[11][10][2][14]}

Noun

1. (archaic slang) A younger son of a family of rank, regarded as an ineligible suitor; more generally, a person or thing that does harm.^[2][3][10]

Word family

• detrimentally
• detrimentality
• nondetrimental
• undetrimental

Related words

• detriment
• detritus
• trite
• attrition
• contrite

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
14. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press