English
damage
Damage comes from Middle English damage, from Old French damage, from Vulgar Latin *damnāticum, from Classical Latin damnum.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdamnum1‘damage, loss’
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*damnāticum1‘harm’reconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400damage1
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500damage1‘damage, harm’
- Englishearliest quotation 1625damage1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English damage
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Friendship: “Great errors and absurdities many […]commit for want of…”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEdamnumWiktionary, English damage‘damage, loss’
- Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*damnāticumWiktionary, English damage‘harm’reconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400damageWiktionary, English damage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500damageWiktionary, English damage‘damage, harm’
- Englishearliest quotation 1625damageWiktionary, English damage. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Friendship: “Great errors and absurdities many […]commit for want of…”
The story
Largely displaced native Middle English scath (whence unscathed).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *deh₂p- ‘to sacrifice, to lose’
through Proto-Italic *dapnom
condemnation, damning, damnation, 5 more
through Latin damnum ‘damage, injury’
Today it means
noun Injury or harm; the condition or measure of something not being intact.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “damage”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin damnum / damage