Etymologically
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occurrence

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 22 October 2026 at 21:43. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • /ɜː/[1]
  • UK: /əˈkʌɹ.əns/, /əˈkɜː.ɹəns/[1]
  • US: /əˈkɜɹ.əns/[1]

Etymology

The OED gives two possible sources: Medieval Latin occurrentia (“occasion, happening, event”), recorded from the 14th century or earlier and formed on occurrēns, the present participle of occurrō (“to run to meet, befall”); or the English adjective occurrent with the suffix -ence.[2][3] The SOED, the Oxford Dictionary of English and Merriam-Webster think it probably began as the plural of the noun occurrent, an occurrence, later reshaped after pairs such as abstinent and abstinence.[4][5][6] Etymonline also allows occurrence (“unexpected happening”),[3] which the OED compares.[2] Klein treats it as formed from occur.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Something that happens; an event or incident: 1539, in a letter of Thomas Cromwell.[2] Merriam-Webster gives the same year,[6] Etymonline the 1530s[3] and Dictionary.com 1530–40.[8]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th century the word also meant, as a mass noun, whatever occurs or presents itself, a use now obsolete.[2] Edward Topsell used it in 1607 for a chance meeting, an obsolete sense.[2] The sense "the fact of occurring or being found", as of a mineral or a word, is recorded from 1725, in Isaac Watts's Logick,[2][9] and the frequency or distribution of something from 1921, in ecology.[2] In church use occurrence is the falling of two festivals on the same day (1863).[2] Etymonline notes that the adjective occurrent, "occurring, incidental", recorded from the mid-15th century, is long obsolete.[3]

Timeline

  • 1539 – an event or incident.[2]
  • 1607 – a chance meeting (obsolete).[2]
  • 1725 – the fact of occurring or being found.[2]
  • 1863 – the coincidence of two church festivals.[2]
  • 1921 – frequency or distribution.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Something that happens; an event or incident: Power cuts were a weekly occurrence.
  2. The fact or an instance of happening, existing or being found: the occurrence of gold in the hills.
  3. The rate or frequency with which something occurs.

Word family

  • occurrent
  • nonoccurrence
  • preoccurrence
  • reoccurrence

Usage notes

Dictionary.com refers occurrence to its synonym study at event, and lists circumstance as a synonym.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  8. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  9. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)