Victims

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈvɪktɪmz/

Definitions

1. Individuals who experience harm, loss, or suffering as a result of adverse actions, events, or conditions
2. People who are subjected to injury or damage through crime, accidents, or difficult situations
3. Those who suffer injury, loss, or pain due to harmful circumstances or events

Etymology: "Victims" is the plural of "victim," so the story belongs to the singular. The Latin source, "victima," meant a sacrificial animal offered to the gods, and the sense of a creature slaughtered on an altar is still visible in the word's history. It passed into English through Middle French "victime," and it displaced an older native English word, "tifer," which meant "offering" or "victim" in the same sacrificial sense. The word did not begin by describing people who suffer harm. Its earliest meaning was the offering itself, and the shift to a living person who is hurt or killed came later, as the sacrificial sense faded and the idea of a sufferer took over. Modern usage, which covers crime, accidents, and hard circumstances, grew out of that broader sense of someone who bears the cost of something. Although "victim" is often linked with "victor," the two are traditionally treated as separate words, despite their similar sound and shared Proto-Indo-European roots that are reconstructed as distinct.

Synonyms: casualties, sufferers, injured, targets, prey

Antonyms: perpetrators, offenders, aggressors, attackers, criminals