casual
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle French casuel, from Late Latin cāsuālis (“happening by chance”), from Latin cāsus (“event”) (English case), from cadere (“to fall”) (whence English cadence).
PronunciationEdit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkaʒuəl/, /ˈkaʒjuəl/, /ˈkazjuəl/, /ˈkaʒəl/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈkæʒuəl/, /ˈkæʒwəl/, /ˈkæʒəl/
- (New Zealand) IPA(key): /ˈkɛʒʉɘl/, /ˈkɛʒɘl/
- (obsolete) IPA(key): /-uæl/
- Hyphenation: ca‧su‧al,
- cas‧ual,
- casu‧al
Audio (AU) (file)
AdjectiveEdit
casual (comparative more casual, superlative most casual)
- Happening by chance.
- 1819 June 23 – 1820 September 13, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], “(please specify the title)”, in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., New York, N.Y.: […] C. S. Van Winkle, […], →OCLC:
- casual breaks, in the general system
- They only had casual meetings.
- Coming without regularity; occasional or incidental.
- 1850, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 9, in The Scarlet Letter, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:
- a constant habit, rather than a casual gesture
- The purchase of donuts was just a casual expense.
- Employed irregularly.
- 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything. In a moment she had dropped to the level of a casual labourer.
- He was just a casual worker.
- Careless.
- 2007, Nick Holland, The Girl on the Bus (page 117)
- I removed my jacket and threw it casually over the back of the settee.
- 2007, Nick Holland, The Girl on the Bus (page 117)
- Happening or coming to pass without design.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 8, in The China Governess[1]:
- It was a casual sneer, obviously one of a long line. There was hatred behind it, but of a quiet, chronic type, nothing new or unduly virulent, and he was taken aback by the flicker of amazed incredulity that passed over the younger man's ravaged face.
- 2012, Jeff Miller, Grown at Glen Garden: Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, and the Little Texas Golf Course that Propelled Them to Stardom
- Hogan assumed the entire creek bed was to be played as a casual hazard, moved his ball out and assessed himself a one-stroke penalty.
- (of behavior, usage, or milieu) Informal; relaxed.
- tone in casual interactions
- (of clothing or utensils) Designed for informal or everyday use.
- Hyponym: business casual
- pants in the casual wear collection
SynonymsEdit
- (happening by chance): accidental, fortuitous, incidental, occasional, random; see also Thesaurus:accidental
- (happening or coming to pass without design): unexpected
- (relaxed; everyday use): informal
AntonymsEdit
- (happening by chance): inevitable, necessary
- (happening or coming to pass without design): expected, scheduled
- (relaxed; everyday use): ceremonial, formal
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
happening by chance
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coming without regularity; occasional or incidental
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employed irregularly
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careless
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happening or coming to pass without design
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informal, relaxed
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designed for informal or everyday use
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NounEdit
casual (plural casuals)
- (Britain, Australia, New Zealand) A worker who is only working for a company occasionally, not as its permanent employee.
- A soldier temporarily at a place of duty, usually en route to another place of duty.
- (UK, historical) A member of a group of football hooligans who wear expensive designer clothing to avoid police attention; see casual (subculture).
- Synonym: (Manchester) Perry boy
- 2019 September 14, Miranda Sawyer, “Mark Leckey: ‘There has to be a belief that art has this power, this charisma'”, in The Guardian[2]:
- At 15, he became a casual: one of the label-wearing, wedge-flicking, swaggering hooligan peacock boys who dominated the north-west when I was growing up. Casuals were working-class lads (called Perry boys in Manchester) who loved football, fighting and brilliant sportswear.
- One who receives relief for a night in a parish to which he does not belong; a vagrant.
- (video games, informal, derogatory) A player of casual games.
- The devs dumbed the game down so the casuals could enjoy it.
- (fandom slang) A person whose engagement with media is relaxed or superficial.
- 1972, Lee C. Garrison, "The Needs of Motion Picture Audiences", California Management Review, Volume 15, Issue 2, Winter 1972, page 149:
- Casuals outnumbered regulars in the art-house audience two to one.
- 2010, Jennifer Gillan, Television and New Media: Must-Click TV, page 16:
- Most often, when a series is marketed toward casuals, the loyals feel that their interests and needs are not being met.
- 2018, E. J. Nielsen, "The Gay Elephant Meta in the Room: Sherlock and the Johnlock Conspiracy", in Queerbaiting and Fandom: Teasing Fans Through Homoerotic Possibilities (ed. Joseph Brennan), page 91:
- Treating a gay relationship as a puzzle that must be pursued by the clever viewers and hidden from “casuals” until a narrative reveal at the eleventh hour seems antithetical to the idea of normalized representation that TJLCers claim as the main reason they want Johnlock to be canon, […]
- 1972, Lee C. Garrison, "The Needs of Motion Picture Audiences", California Management Review, Volume 15, Issue 2, Winter 1972, page 149:
- (Britain, dated) A tramp.
- 1983, Reg Butler, Reg Butler, London: Tate Gallery London, page 14:
- I was a boy in 1922 or 1923, when buses first started to run between the village and the town; there were tramps, casuals as they were called; the whole pattern of my boyhood was knit into a very loaded atmosphere of human character.
- Shoes suitable for everyday use, as opposed to more formal footwear.
- 1948 December, “Shoes: Competition Is Back”, in Kiplinger Magazine, page 47, column 2:
- Next spring you’ll see more women than ever wearing “casuals” and “flats,” the shoes with the wedge heels or no heels at all.
- 1959, The Medical Officer, page 158:
- In girls wearing casuals, ugly hypertrophied skin over the heels was frequently noted, probably due to the loose shoe moving as they walked.
- 1967, Kenneth Tynan, Tynan Right & Left: Plays, Films, People, Places and Events, New York, N.Y.: Atheneum, page 65:
- Like his friends, he is wearing casuals, ideal for lounging around crypts.
- 1984, William Golding, The Paper Men, page 71:
- He and I were wearing casuals […]
TranslationsEdit
a worker who is only working for a company occasionally
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Related termsEdit
ReferencesEdit
- casual in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
AnagramsEdit
CatalanEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
AdjectiveEdit
casual (masculine and feminine plural casuals)
Derived termsEdit
Further readingEdit
- “casual” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
- “casual”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2023
- “casual” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
- “casual” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.
PortugueseEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
AdjectiveEdit
casual m or f (plural casuais)
- casual (happening by chance)
- Synonym: fortuito
- casual (coming without regularity)
- Synonym: ocasional
- casual (designed for informal or everyday use)
Derived termsEdit
SpanishEdit
EtymologyEdit
PronunciationEdit
AdjectiveEdit
casual (plural casuales)
Derived termsEdit
DescendantsEdit
- → Cebuano: kaswal
Further readingEdit
- “casual”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014