Other forms: losers
A loser is somebody who did not win. The losers get a medal too, a bad loser, winners and losers.
A bad loser is somebody who takes defeat badly, and a good loser takes it well — both are fixed phrases and the first is the commoner. Used of a person generally, loser is a straightforward insult meaning somebody unsuccessful and pitiable, and it is informal and unkind. Note the third use in policy writing: the losers from a change are the people who end up worse off, which is neutral and technical. And loser is built transparently from lose plus -er.
1nounloserSomebody who does not win.
“The losers went home and the winners stayed for photographs.”
2nounendsSomebody who ends up worse off from a change.
“The report names the winners and losers plainly.”
3noununsuccessfulAn unsuccessful or pitiable person — an insult.
“Calling somebody a loser says more about you.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
loser is somebody who does not win.
Middle English
loser
English, today
loser
From Middle English loser, losere, equivalent to lose + er. In the sense of contemptible or worthless individual, perhaps an alteration of losel, which see.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA