With etymological origin in the Latin word incolŭmis , the term unharmed is used to describe that which does not present damage or injury . The unharmed, therefore, is healthy.
For example: “Despite the strong earthquake that occurred last night, the old church of the town remained unscathed” , “Under my government, freedom of expression remained unscathed even with the hostile climate that we suffered” , “An evolved society has a respect unharmed by the laws.”
Many times the concept of unbroken refers to what is firm or unalterable . Suppose that a football figure signs a three-year contract with a club that aspires to be one of the protagonists of his country's league. At the end of the first year, the team did not achieve the expected results and everything indicates that the situation will not change in the following season. That is why rumors are beginning to emerge regarding the star's alleged intention to terminate the contract and leave the club. This player, however, clarifies to journalists that his commitment remains intact . With these words he expresses that he does not intend to modify what was agreed and that he will comply with what was agreed.
In a physical sense, the unharmed does not register damage or deterioration . Let's take the case of a country where a war is taking place. Due to the clashes, bombings are frequent. If in an area numerous buildings are destroyed, but a school suffers no damage, it can be said that it survived unscathed beyond the bombs . This expression reveals that the structure remained intact despite the explosions.
It is important to highlight the need for a phenomenon of a harmful nature so that a person or an object can be classified as unharmed : there must be the possibility of damage or injury, and it is only when the subject avoids them that we can talk about its status.
All the examples presented so far show us nuances of the meaning of unscathed that can also be found in the following synonyms: unharmed, unscathed, safe, intact, whole, healthy, complete, incorrupt and free . Regarding its most frequently used antonyms, we can mention the following two: injured and damaged .
To understand this term in greater depth, let's study its etymology in depth. We are dealing with an adjective that, as mentioned above, means "healthy, without injuries or damage." Its most remote origin is found in Latin, with its predecessor incolumis , an adjective that was defined in the same way.
The word unscathed shares the root with calamity (in Latin it is calamitas, calamitatis and is defined as "damage, loss or blow"). This is *kel-2 , an Indo-European root whose meaning is "to beat and cut", and which also provided the Latin term gladius (which translates as "sword"), from which gladiator arose.
The same Indo-European root can be found in the Greek language in the verb κλαω (which means "to break"), from which we obtained certain technical compounds such as being osteoclasty and iconoclast , which are defined as "intentional breaking of a bone" and "destroyer of images", respectively. Nor should we leave aside κολαφος (which translates as "slap"), which came into Latin as colaphus and was deformed into the vulgar term colupus to later become our word blow .
In short, the term unscathed is not present in everyday speech but it serves to express something that is common, the idea of being whole, healthy, of not having received any damage after an accident or of having emerged unscathed from a catastrophe . Both in its strictest and figurative sense, its meaning is very necessary to express a good part of our daily communication, although we generally opt for some of its synonyms.