accident

Definitions

ac- (a form of ad-, 'toward') + cid (cadere, 'fall') + -ent = 'something falling toward you.' In Latin, an event that 'fell upon' you simply happened, unplanned. That gives the older neutral sense (by accident = by chance) and the everyday narrowed sense: an unlucky, harmful event you never saw coming.

Why It Means This

Accident hides a falling: ac- 'toward' + cadere 'to fall.' The Romans thought of an event as something that 'fell upon' a person — so an accident was originally just whatever happened to you, good or bad. English kept the neutral version in phrases like 'by accident' and the philosophical 'accident' (a non-essential property), but everyday English narrowed it to the unlucky kind: the thing that drops on you out of nowhere.

Common Collocations

• 1.car accident车祸
• 2.traffic accident交通事故
• 3.by accident偶然地、不小心
• 4.freak accident离奇事故
• 5.accident-prone容易出事故的

Example Sentences

• 1.

  He was injured in a car accident on the way to work.

• 2.

  I deleted the file by accident, not on purpose.

• 3.

  It was no accident that she arrived just as he left.

Easily Confused

accident vs. incident: an accident is unplanned and usually causes harm (a car accident). An incident is simply 'something that happened,' often deliberate or notable, and not necessarily harmful (a security incident, a border incident). If no one meant for it to happen and it hurt → accident; if it's just a noteworthy event → incident.