Accidents

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Unexpected events that result in unintended harm or damage
2. Incidents occurring by chance that may involve injury or loss
3. Unforeseen occurrences leading to undesirable consequences or mishaps

Etymology: The most striking thing about "accidents" is how far its ancestor's meaning drifted from ours. Its root is the Latin verb "accidere", built from "ad" ("to") and "cadere" ("fall"), so it literally meant something that falls toward you. Romans used it for things that befell a person or thing, with no sense that they were harmful or unlucky, and Latin philosophers applied the same idea to qualities that happen to belong to a thing without being essential to it. The word reached English in the late 14th century, carried through Old French, and at first it kept that neutral sense of something that happens by chance. The modern association with mishap grew gradually from there, so that a happening became a happening that went wrong. A later and sharper shift appears in the 20th century, when "accident" came to mean an unintended pregnancy, with first attestation in 1932.

Synonyms: incidents, mishaps, crashes

Antonyms: safety, certainty