Collateral damage is a U.S. Military term for unintended or incidental damage during a military operation. The term, which originated as a euphemism during the Vietnam War, can refer to friendly fire, or the killing of non-combatants and the destruction of their property. Etymology The expression "collateral damage" probably originated as military doublespeak rather than a euphemism, as the adjective "collateral" doesn't seem to have been used as a synonym for "unintentional" or "accidental" earlier. "Collateral" comes from medieval Latin collateralis, from col-, "together with" + lateralis (from latus, later-, "side" ) and is otherwise mainly used as a synonym for "parallel" or "additional" in certain expressions ("collateral veins" run parallel to each other and "collateral security" means additional security to the main obligation in a contract). However, "collateral" may also

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