accidente

Forms

accidente m (plural accidentes)^[1] Old and classical Spanish also wrote acidente, açidente, acçidente and acçident;^[2][3] acidente competed with the Latin spelling until the first half of the 17th century and survives in popular speech in Spain and the Americas.^[2][3] Achidente has been recorded as an Italianism of Buenos Aires speech.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin accidēns (“chance event; non-essential quality”), the present participle of accidō (“to fall upon; to happen”) used as a noun.^[3][4][5][1] The verb is formed ad- and cadō (“to fall”);^[6][7][1][8] Wiktionary takes the simple verb back to Proto-Indo-European *ḱad- (“to fall”).^[6][7][1][8]

In Latin the word meant both a chance event and a non-essential quality; the second rendered the philosophical term Ancient Greek συμβεβηκός (sumbebēkós), opposed to substance.^[9][10] VOX traces the philosophical sense to Aristotle and the sense of mishap to the idea of an unlucky chance.^[11] Late Latin physicians of the 5th century used it as a calque of σύμπτωμα (sýmptōma) for a sudden collapse or disorder.^[12]

The same Latin word was borrowed as French accident (1170), Italian accidente, Catalan accident and Portuguese acidente.^{[13][14][15][1]} Gómez de Silva relates it to caer and acaecer.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH and the BDELC date it about 1300, in the Libro del cavallero Cifar.^[3][4] The CDH has it half a century earlier in the astrological and scientific prose of Alfonso X's time: the Judizios de las estrellas (1254–1260) foretell muchos accidentes malos & mortales “many evil and deadly mishaps”.^[16][12] The same text uses it for a quality of the body, and the Lapidario for illnesses caused by melancholy.^[17] The Setenario (c. 1252–1270, in an early 14th-century copy) explains the word as acaesçimientos de auentura “happenings of chance”.^[16]

Semantic evolution

The three medieval senses, a non-essential quality, a chance event and a sudden illness, are all still in use.^[17][5] In the Quijote the word means an unforeseen turn of events, an illness and a fit of madness.^[18] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) put the philosophers' sense first, then the chance event, then the physicians' sudden illness.^[19] The Academy added the accidents of the Eucharist in 1817 and the grammatical sense by 1869, and Alemany listed the musical sign in 1917.^[20][21][22]

The modern main sense, a mishap that causes harm, grew out of the chance event;^[11][5] accidente del terreno “unevenness of the ground” came from French, according to VOX.^[11][5] The adjective accidentado in the sense “rugged” (1855) was condemned as a Gallicism by Baralt and Cuervo and admitted by the Academy in 1936.^[3] In rural Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador accidente is a contagious viral disease of poultry.^[23] Tagalog borrowed the word as aksidente.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – the Libro de los buenos proverbios (in a late 13th-century copy) has açidentes in an astrological sense.^[16]
• 1254–1260 – the Judizios de las estrellas: muchos accidentes malos & mortales.^[16][24]
• c. 1300 – the Libro del cavallero Cifar, the first record in the DCECH.^[3][4]
• early 15th century – first record of accidental.^[4]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary glosses Latin accidens as acidente o acontecimiento.^[25]
• 1573 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City.^[26]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it; the same year it records accidentado for someone who has had an accident.^[19][4]
• 1855 – accidentado “rugged”, after French.^[3][4]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, Latin accidens.^[27]

Meanings

Noun

1. An unforeseen event that disturbs the normal course of things.^[5]
2. An accident: a mishap or act that causes unintended harm to people or things: Hubo un accidente grave en la autopista.^[5][1]
3. A sudden, usually serious illness or attack, as in accidente cerebrovascular “stroke”.^[5][1]
4. (medicine) A serious symptom that appears unexpectedly during an illness without being one of its characteristic signs.^[5][12]
5. An irregularity of the ground;^[5][1] accidente geográfico, a geographical feature.^[5][1]
6. (rare) A passion or stirring of the mind.^[5]
7. (philosophy) A quality or state that is not part of a thing's essence.^[5]
8. (grammar) A grammatical category such as gender, number or tense (accidente gramatical).^[5]
9. (music) An accidental: a sharp, flat or natural sign.^[5][1]
10. (in the plural, religion) The shape, colour, taste and smell of the bread and wine that remain after consecration.^[5]
11. (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador; rural) A contagious viral disease of poultry.^[23]

Word family

• accidentado

Related words

• accidentar
• caer
• acaecer
• Latin accidēns
• French accident

Usage notes

Accidente de trabajo is an injury or illness suffered at work;^[5][1] por accidente means “by chance”.^[5][1] Old Spanish also had accidente, acidente as a form of occidente “west”, in Juan Manuel's Libro del cavallero et del escudero (1326).^[28]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. accidente
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 28
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. accidente
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. accidente
6. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. accidente
7. ^ a b c Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. accidente
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. accidens
10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. accĭdens
11. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. accidente
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. accidente
13. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. accident
14. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. accident
15. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 84
16. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. accidente
17. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. accidente
18. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 25
19. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 41
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 10
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 7
22. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 19
23. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. accidente
24. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org
25. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. accidente
26. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. accidente
27. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 11
28. ^ Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 86