Damage is harm.
Damage is the effect of damaging . The term comes from the Latin damnum and is linked to the verb that refers to causing harm , impairment , annoyance or pain . For example: "Your words have hurt me" , "The bullet caused irreparable damage to the nerves in my left leg" , "The material damage was immense after the fire, but there were no fatalities or injuries to report" , "The car suffered extensive damage from the accident."
In some countries on the American continent, the notion of damage is used to name curses or the evil eye (the supposed ability of certain people to cause harm to others by simply looking at them): «A witch told me that someone has done damage."
Damage to the right
For law , damage is a loss that a person or their property suffers due to the fault of another subject. Damage, therefore, involves a detriment to the rights, property or interests of an individual as a consequence of the action or omission of another.
The damage can be generated by fraud, fault or by chance. Intentional damage occurs when the subject acts intentionally (someone hits another person's car with a stick and breaks its windows, for example). Wrongful damage , on the other hand, occurs due to negligence (a person throws a cigarette in the field and causes a fire).
Any damage generates an obligation for compensation to the person responsible. In certain cases, the damage may also imply a criminal sanction , when the illegal act committed is punishable by law.
Inflicting harm may be grounds for legal sanction.
Other legal classification
In the case of Spain , for example, a clear differentiation is also established within what the types of damages can be. In this way, they are divided into two groups: moral damages and property damages . The first we can say are those that have such scope and severity that they cannot be repaired even with the payment of any financial amount. A clear example of moral damage would be the loss of a loved one.
The second, the patrimonial , are those that can be repaired with money or goods that can be replaced by it.
Within the field of law, it is also very common for the expression damages to be used. What is done with it is alluding to the possibility of financial compensation that is granted to the person who has suffered harm. It is, therefore, a way to repair and compensate for that.
More uses of the term damage
In addition to all of the above, we cannot forget that in certain American countries, such as Nicaragua or Guatemala , a verbal phrase is used that incorporates the word damage. Specifically, we are referring to the expression "do harm to a maiden" which means deflowering a young woman.
In the field of commerce , finally, there is an expression that makes use of the term that we are now analyzing. We are referring to "profits and damages" which is basically used as a synonym for what would be "gains and losses" ; That is, the document where both the profits that a company is having and the aforementioned losses are recorded.