Detrimental means causing damage or loss. Detrimental to health, a detrimental effect, prove detrimental.
It is the formal word of reports and policy documents, and it nearly always takes to. The Latin behind it means worn away by rubbing, which fits the slow kind of harm the word usually describes.
1adjectivedetrimentalCausing damage or loss.
“Too much screen time can be detrimental to children's sleep.”
detrimental is a quality.
Latin detrimentum means harm, from deterere, to rub away, from de- plus terere, to rub.
Latin
dētrīmentum — harm
Medieval Latin
*dētrīmentālis
English, today
detrimental
Built from
From Medieval Latin dētrīmentālis, from Latin dētrīmentum (“harm”), from dēterō (“to rub off, wear”), from dē- (“down, away”) + terō (“to rub or grab”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA