Loser

From Old English losian — to perish, be destroyed. From los — destruction, loss. The agentive sense — one who loses — developed in Middle English. The pejorative social use — 'loser' as a class of person rather than a participant who lost a contest — is largely 20th-century American.

Sharpened as a social epithet in late 20th-century American slang — from teen-movie shorthand to a defining vocabulary of Donald Trump's political rhetoric, where 'loser' was applied to opponents, journalists, and even soldiers. The word carries an unusual weight in American culture where winning is itself moralized. Compare with cultures that traditionally honor the dignified loser.