detriment
/ˈdɛtɹɪmənt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.26 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A charge made to students and barristers for incidental repairs of the rooms they occupy.
British usage; Countable; Obsolete; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "“But marriage in secret, Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch — a fatal secret. I receive money from you, and I'm suddenly asked the question, 'What's that money for?' My hands are tied; I cannot answer to the detriment of my sister, to the detriment of the family honour.”"
- ""Would it be fair to say that when it came to making trouble, you'd make up for what you didn't absolutely know . . . and to our detriment?""
- "“There’s far more evidence for coffee’s benefits than harms,” Dr. Cryer said — which is something worth keeping in mind, he added, while you scroll through social media stories that profess the brew’s detriments."
- "Saturn, Jupiter and Mars from their conjunction to their opposition with the Sun are Oriental, and gain two fortitudes; but from their Opposition to their Conjunction are occidental, and incur two detriments."
- "DEJECTION [with Astrol.] said of the planets, when in their detriment, i.e. when they have lost their force or influence by reason of being in opposition to some other, which check and contract them."
- "This is infallible : Saturn out of all Dignities in his Detriment and Fall, combust : and Venus in the South-angle elevated above him, Lady of both their Nativities, in her essential and accidental Dignities; occidental from the[…]"
Etymology
From Old French detriement, from Latin detrimentum (“loss, damage, literally a rubbing off”), from dēterere (“to rub off, wear”), from dē- (“down, away”) + terere (“to rub”). Detriment is related to the word detritus, and built on similar foundations to the word impediment.
Origin
- Source language: Old French
Word Breakdown
- Root: detriement, detrimentum
Usage
- Countable
- Uncountable
- British usage
- Obsolete
- Transitive verb