detrimental, a. and n.
(dɛtrɪˈmɛntəl)
[f. detriment n. + -al1.]
A. adj. Causing loss or damage; harmful, injurious, hurtful.
| 1656 Blount Glossogr., Detrimental, hurtful, dangerous, full of loss. a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1840) I. 281 A gift indeed..loaded with no detrimental conditions. 1719 W. Wood Surv. Trade 84 That the Trade..is most detrimental to the Nation. 1801 Med. Jrnl. V. 1 Particularly detrimental to the constitution. 1872 Yeats Growth Comm. 271 Their admission was detrimental to French industry. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) IV. 53 Paradoxes..which [are]..detrimental to the true course of thought. |
B. n. A person or thing that is prejudicial; in Society slang, a younger brother of the heir of an estate; an ineligible suitor.
| 1831 Westm. Rev. XIV. 424 The eldest son is pursued by..damsels, while the younger are termed ‘detrimentals’..and avoided by ‘mothers and daughters’ as more dangerous company than the plague. 1832 Marryat N. Forster xxv, These detrimentals (as they have named themselves) may be provided for. 1854 Lady Lytton Behind the Scenes I. ii. iii. 188 There were also plenty of detrimentals, such as younger brothers, unpaid red tapeists, heiress-seekers, and political connection-hunters. 1870 C. F. Gordon-Cumming in Gd. Words 137/1 The sisters of the wife being considered detrimentals, are placed in Buddhist convents. 1886 Househ. Words 13 Mar. 400 (Farmer) A detrimental, in genteel slang, is a lover, who, owing to his poverty is ineligible as a husband; or one who professes to pay attentions to a lady without serious intention of marriage, and thereby discourages the intentions of others. 1893 Mrs. C. Praed Outlaw & Lawmaker II. 80 Mrs. Valliant..thought that the detrimentals kept off desirable suitors. |
Hence detrimenˈtality, detriˈmentalness.
| 1727 Bailey vol. II, Detrimentalness, prejudicialness. 1873 Daily News 5 Aug., When you are hinting to your fair daughter the detrimentality of Charlie Fraser..who has his subaltern's pay and about 50l. a year thrown in. |