"Casualty." I have heard this word with increased frequency on the news tonight, as a helicopter went down and 12 Coalition soldiers lost their lives. How awful a name for the death of a human being. I hate the way it makes death feel like something so routine. "12 Casualties in a helicopter crash outside Kuwait..." it rolls off the tongue with such ease, and that drives me crazy; granted the word comes from the Latin "câsuâlis" meaning Fortuitous, or "happening by chance or accident." Nevertheless, I think an heir to Webster needs to step forward, and come up with a word for death, especially in the context of war, that echoes it much more respect.
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