fatality

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French fatalité (“the agency that predetermines events, fate”),^[2][3][4][5] from Late Latin fātālitās (“fatal necessity”),^[2][3][4] from fātālis (“ordained by fate; destructive, deadly”),^[3][2][6] the source of fatal, from fātum, the source of fate.^[6][3] The Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English allow a direct borrowing from Late Latin too.^[7][6] The OED notes that the post-classical Latin word also meant death, from the 12th century in British sources,^[2] and compares Italian fatalità (1576).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Apparently a harmful or malevolent influence, a rare and now obsolete use: 1490, in Caxton's Arte & Crafte to knowe well to Dye.^[2] Etymonline glosses the late 15th-century word as "the quality of causing death",^[3] and the Shorter Oxford also dates that sense to the late 15th century.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th and 17th centuries the word was mostly about fate: from 1579 a destiny, what is fated to happen to someone, then from 1603 the quality of being determined by fate, or the power of fate over events.^[2][3] Johnson (1755) defined it first as predestination, a fixed order of events, quoting the Stoics' belief in it.^[8] From 1615 it could mean a calamity or misfortune, while from 1625 it also meant the quality of causing death or disaster.^[2] The sense now most common, a death caused by an accident, a war or a disease, or the person who died, is recorded from 1772,^[2] and Etymonline dates "an occurrence resulting in widespread death" to 1840.^[3] The Oxford Dictionary of English dates this sense to the mid 19th century.^[6]

Timeline

• 1490 – a harmful or malevolent influence (obsolete).^[2]
• 1579 – a destiny; what is fated to happen.^[2]
• 1603 – the quality of being determined by fate; the power of fate.^[2]
• 1615 – a calamity or misfortune.^[2]
• 1625 – the quality of causing death or disaster.^[2]
• 1772 – a death caused by an accident, war or disease; a person killed.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A death resulting from an accident, a disaster, war or disease, or the person who dies: The storm caused three fatalities.^[9][4][2]
2. An accident or disaster that results in death.^[9][3]
3. The quality of causing death or disaster; deadliness: the fatality of the disease.^[9][4][2]
4. The quality of being determined by fate; subjection to fate.^[9][4][2]
5. Something brought about by fate or necessity; a destiny.^[9][4][2]

Word family

• nonfatality
• fatality rate

Related words

• fatal
• fate
• fatalism
• fatalist

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins