"Collateral Damage"

[Barnhart]

JJJRLandau at AOL.COM,Net writes:
>
>>From two news articles on the collapse of Enron:

>P.S. I doubt if either of the quoted authors realized it, but there is
a
>far-fetched play on words.  The victims who had loaned money to Enron
>suffered damage (or destruction) to their "collateral".
>

Very interesting.  The Dictionary Companion had an entry in Spring 2000
(Vol. 12.3) with two definitions extending the military usage, one for
medical operations and one for "investigations" or "supervision."

collateral damage, {M}  1. injury to anything near the site of an
attack, such as brain cells near the location of a stroke.  Standard
(used in contexts dealing especially with biochemistry or medicine;
frequency?)

Dr. David Pinsky, a researcher at the Columbia University College of
Physicians and Surgeons, said the drug appears to stop two
neuron-killing reactions that usually follow a stroke caused by a
blocked blood vessel.  "After a stroke, there is an immune system
reaction that acts like a cluster bomb attack in the brain," said
Pinsky, the senior author of the Science study.  The reactions involve
immune system cells that kill neurons directly, and an inflammation in
vessels that slows the flow of blood and oxygen to the stroke site.
Both of these actions cause "collateral damage," killing neurons that
may not have been involved in the original stroke, said Pinsky.  Paul
Recer, "Today In AOL Health: New Drug May Help Stroke Victims," AOL
[America On Line] News, July 22, 1999

2. death, injury or risk to people, animals, activities, or the like,
near or loosely associated with others under investigation,
supervision, or attack.

What he takes from nature is for his personal use and that of those
close to him, and not for commercial profit."  Not so with loggers. Of
course, to a logger owls are not actual quarry, but collateral damage.
To be fair, for every hunter on a spiritual quest there's another in
search of the perfect six-pack, but that's a different story.  Asta
Bowen, "Owls Unlimited Would Save Bird," an editorial in the Seattle
[Wash.] Post-Intelligencer (Nexis), March 3, 1992, p A9

Kennedy found that in a strict causation sense, it was true that
plaintiff's termination resulted from the conspiracy, "but  collateral
damages  to persons outside the competitive area aggrandized by
antitrust defendants are inconsistent with the orderly administration
of the antitrust laws."  In short, the dissent emphasized that the
antitrust laws are directed at the preservation of competition, "not
employee coercion or discharge," and that while plaintiff had an
intimate connection with defendant's alleged anticompetitive scheme, he
had little or no relationship to the scheme's anticompetitive effects.
William A. Cerillo, "Circuits Disagree on Antitrust Claims by
Employees," Legal Times (Nexis), Sept. 13, 1982, p 15

Semantic shift (specialization): from collateral damage (DC 6.3:
1991?), meaning "injury of civilians or damage to civilian property
because of proximity to a military target which has been destroyed."

Collateral damage may give us the "meaning of the year 2002."

Regards,
David

barnhart at highlands.com