double damages
- noun
- /ˈdʌbəl ˈdæmɪdʒɪz/
- Formal
:
daños duplicados
- According to The Laws and Liberties of Massachusetts (1648), a person convicted of forging legal documents was required to "stand in the pillory three several lecture days and render double damages to the party wronged."
Examples
-
The judge ruled that the company must pay double damages for the unsafe product that caused the accident.
-
If a defendant is found liable for malicious behavior, the court may award double damages to the injured party.
-
In some cases, a plaintiff can request double damages if the defendant acted willfully or with gross negligence.
How Large
- Formal
26
8.8
- Formal
1
9.5
- Formal
- Specialized
5
6.3
- Formal
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and compositionally derived from 'double' (twice) plus 'damages' (financial compensation), so a learner who knows both words can infer it means an award equal to two times the normal damages. Although the phrase is legal in register, its internal logic follows standard adjective + noun composition and is cross-linguistically transparent, making it readily comprehensible to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Double damages is a legal phrase that comes from laws which make the person who caused harm pay twice the normal money; imagine a judge ordering two equal piles of money instead of one. The word double shows paying twice and damages means the money for harm, so double damages means a money award that is 'twice the amount' to punish the person and stop it happening again.