The Latin word demerÄtus came to Castilian as demerit. This is called the absence or lack of merit or value. A demerit is also a condition or an act by which one demerits.
For example: “Convening a meeting of specialists to request assistance in certain situations is not a demerit for a ruler”, “We have to reduce costs without demeriting quality “, “It is a demerit to reach the goal in this way”.
Suppose a writer is hired to give a lecture at a cultural center. When the man starts his talk, he doesn’t know what to say, since he didn’t prepare the talk. In this way he begins to improvise, although he gets stuck many times and even remains silent for long periods until he comes up with what to communicate. The presentation of the writer is defined as a demerit by the public and those who hired him.
Take the case, on the other hand, of a professional First Division soccer team facing off against a group of fans. Due to the reality of both teams, a win for the professionals was expected. However, the match ends 1-0 in favor of said squad. According to the journalists, the result is a demerit for the First Division team, beyond the victory.
These two examples show us that demerit can occur as a result of one or more decisions that lead us to not present ourselves in the right way to the world, that do not allow us to show the best of ourselves, the expectations that our reputation awakens in our environment, but, on the contrary, they push us to tarnish our image, to “disparage” it. Although the term demerit is not used in everyday speech, this idea can be represented with others such as “disappointment” or “disappointment”.
Finally, in the field of law and insurance, demerit is the loss of value registered by an asset as a result of an accident or due to its daily or habitual use.
Let us take for example the laws of Colombia to explain another concept in which this term appears: in article 404 of Decree 2685 of the year 1999, the expression “absolute demerit” was foreseen, to refer to merchandise that presents a state of deterioration. truly serious, that are going through a process of decomposition or that have been subjected to total damage.
Saying that a property has suffered absolute depreciation is the same as speaking of its lack of value, which may be partial or total and this may take place due to the passage of time or to different issues related to its nature or its condition, provided they are not removed from a free zone. All this is mentioned by the Directorate of National Taxes and Customs.
In addition to the possibilities just mentioned, the destruction of the goods can also take place for other reasons, such as obsolescence, a concept that is defined as the act of ceasing to use equipment, technology or a machine, not because of that they do not work properly but because they do not reach the level of performance offered by the most modern versions that have been introduced on the market.
The demerit of goods, as can be seen, can occur for different reasons, ranging from material damage to convenience issues, which put them below other more modern ones. It is important to understand that it can also lose value if certain fundamental elements of its structure are lost, such as parts that are necessary for its operation.