casual

Etymology

From Middle French casuel, from Late Latin cāsuālis (“happening by chance”), from Latin cāsus (“event”) (English case), from cadere (“to fall”) (whence English cadence).

adj

1. Happening by chance.
   They only had casual meetings.
2. Coming without regularity; occasional or incidental.
   The purchase of donuts was just a casual expense.
3. Employed irregularly.
   He was just a casual worker.
4. Careless.
   I removed my jacket and threw it casually over the back of the settee. 2007, Nick Holland, The Girl on the Bus, page 117
5. Happening or coming to pass without design.
   It was a casual sneer, obviously one of a long line. There was hatred behind it, but of a quiet, chronic type, nothing new or unduly virulent, and he was taken aback by the flicker of amazed incredulity that passed over the younger man's ravaged face. 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 8, in The China Governess
   Hogan assumed the entire creek bed was to be played as a casual hazard, moved his ball out and assessed himself a one-stroke penalty. 2012, Jeff Miller, Grown at Glen Garden: Ben Hogan, Byron Nelson, and the Little Texas Golf Course that Propelled Them to Stardom
6. (of behavior, usage, or milieu) Informal; relaxed.
   tone in casual interactions
7. (of clothing or utensils) Designed for informal or everyday use.
   pants in the casual wear collection

noun

1. (Britain, Australia, New Zealand) A worker who is only working for a company occasionally, not as its permanent employee.
2. A soldier temporarily at a place of duty, usually en route to another place of duty.
3. (UK, historical) A member of a group of football hooligans who wear expensive designer clothing to avoid police attention; see casual (subculture).
   At 15, he became a casual: one of the label-wearing, wedge-flicking, swaggering hooligan peacock boys who dominated the north-west when I was growing up. Casuals were working-class lads (called Perry boys in Manchester) who loved football, fighting and brilliant sportswear. 2019-09-14, Miranda Sawyer, “Mark Leckey: ‘There has to be a belief that art has this power, this charisma'”, in The Guardian
4. One who receives relief for a night in a parish to which he does not belong; a vagrant.
5. (video games, informal, derogatory) A player of casual games.
   The devs dumbed the game down so the casuals could enjoy it.
6. (fandom slang) A person whose engagement with media is relaxed or superficial.
   Casuals outnumbered regulars in the art-house audience two to one. 1972, Lee C. Garrison, "The Needs of Motion Picture Audiences", California Management Review, Volume 15, Issue 2, Winter 1972, page 149
   Most often, when a series is marketed toward casuals, the loyals feel that their interests and needs are not being met. 2010, Jennifer Gillan, Television and New Media: Must-Click TV, page 16
   Treating a gay relationship as a puzzle that must be pursued by the clever viewers and hidden from “casuals” until a narrative reveal at the eleventh hour seems antithetical to the idea of normalized representation that TJLCers claim as the main reason they want Johnlock to be canon, […] 2018, E. J. Nielsen, “The Gay Elephant Meta in the Room: Sherlock and the Johnlock Conspiracy”, in Joseph Brennan, editor, Queerbaiting and Fandom: Teasing Fans Through Homoerotic Possibilities, page 91
7. (Britain, dated) A tramp.
   I was a boy in 1922 or 1923, when buses first started to run between the village and the town; there were tramps, casuals as they were called; the whole pattern of my boyhood was knit into a very loaded atmosphere of human character. 1983, Reg Butler, Reg Butler, London: Tate Gallery London, page 14
8. (in the plural) Shoes suitable for everyday use, as opposed to more formal footwear.
   Next spring you’ll see more women than ever wearing “casuals” and “flats,” the shoes with the wedge heels or no heels at all. 1948 December, “Shoes: Competition Is Back”, in Kiplinger Magazine, page 47, column 2
   In girls wearing casuals, ugly hypertrophied skin over the heels was frequently noted, probably due to the loose shoe moving as they walked. 1959, The Medical Officer, page 158
   Like his friends, he is wearing casuals, ideal for lounging around crypts. 1967, Kenneth Tynan, Tynan Right & Left: Plays, Films, People, Places and Events, New York, N.Y.: Atheneum, page 65
   He and I were wearing casuals[…] 1984, William Golding, The Paper Men, page 71