喜樂美語

核心畫面

One way to picture it: something bad falls on people by chance, and casualty is the name for the person it fell on — the one hurt or killed when the accident or the fighting swept through.

意外像東西從高處掉下來，砸中了誰是碰運氣的事；而 casualty 指的就是「被砸中的那個人」——事故或戰爭掃過之後…更多收起意外像東西從高處掉下來，砸中了誰是碰運氣的事；而 casualty 指的就是「被砸中的那個人」——事故或戰爭掃過之後，受傷或喪命的那一位。這個字的重點不在事件本身，而在事件落在誰身上。

From the word’s history

Casualty goes back through casual to Latin cāsus "a fall, an event" (from cadere "to fall") — the same root as case. It first meant a chance happening; from there it narrowed to the people that chance happening fell upon.

casualty 經由 casual 上溯到拉丁文 cāsus（落下、發生的事，來自 cadere「掉落」），跟 case 同源。它原本指「偶然發生的事」，後來把焦點從「偶然發生的事」收窄到「這件事偶然落在誰身上」——也就是傷亡的那些人。這也解釋了為什麼 casual（隨意的）和 casualty（傷亡者）看起來奇怪地像親戚：兩邊都出自「碰巧掉下來」這個畫面。

Wiktionary（casualty / casual / Latin cāsus < cadere），與 Online Etymology Dictionary 一致

Two branches

被事故擊中的人

這一族就是核心本身：災難落下之後，指認被壓到的那些人。

person hurt or killed · noun · C2

Someone who is hurt or killed in an accident or a war.

傷亡者

接住傷者的地方

不是新的意思，而是核心那個「傷亡者」被拿來當地點的名字——英文常這樣用人稱呼收容他們的空間。

hospital emergency department · noun · C2

In British English, the part of a hospital where people go when they are hurt in an accident or suddenly become ill.

急診室

原始詞典資料8 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

casualtynoun/ˈkaʒʊ.əlti/

  • 1

    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.
  • 2

    A person suffering from injuries or who has been killed due to an accident or through an act of violence.

  • 3

    Specifically, a person who has been killed (not only injured) due to an accident or through an act of violence; a fatality.

  • 4

    governmentmilitarypoliticsA person in military service who becomes unavailable for duty, for any reason (notably death, injury, illness, capture, or desertion).

  • 5

    An incidental charge or payment.

  • 6

    Someone or something adversely affected by a decision, event or situation.

    • 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.
    • 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.
  • 7

    obsoleteChance nature; randomness.

    • The non-necessary [causes] follow; of which, saith Fuchsius, no art can be made, by reason of their uncertainty, casualty, and multitude […]

這個拼法也被記錄為下列字的變化形：

資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。