Occurrences

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Instances of something happening at least once in a context
2. Events that take place multiple times, often in a particular setting
3. A particular instance when something takes place, observed within a specific context

Etymology: "Occurrences" is the plural of "occurrence," a noun that began as a plain verb of motion. "Occur" came into English from Latin "occurrere," meaning "to run to meet" or "to run towards," with "ob-" ("towards, in the way of") added to "currere," "to run." The sense of something turning up or befalling someone grew out of that image of two things running into each other, and the noun was formed by adding the suffix "-ence" to the verb. The noun itself passed into English through Middle French "occurrence," which was taken from Medieval Latin "occurrentia." Its earliest sense in English kept the literal idea of meeting or encountering, so an occurrence was once something that ran into you, before it came to mean any event or happening.

Synonyms: events, instances

Antonyms: non-occurrences, absence