accidente

Forms

accidente m (plural accidenti, relational adjective accidentale)^[1]

Etymology

It is learned: it is borrowed from Latin accidens (“chance event”), the present participle of accidō (“to fall upon; to happen”).^[2][3][4][5] The Latin verb is formed ad- and cadō (“to fall”).^[3][6] Devoto notes the regular change of ⟨a⟩ to ⟨i⟩ in an open inner syllable.^[6] This verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ḱad- (“to fall”).^[1] The word is French accident, Catalan accident, Spanish accidente and Portuguese accidente, all learned forms.^[5][3]

As a term of philosophy the Latin word was used by Seneca as a calque of Aristotle's Ancient Greek συμβεβηκός (sumbebēkós), and the Scholastics spread it; it stands opposite “substance”.^[2][4][7] Nocentini notes that the bad sense, “misfortune”, already existed in Latin.^[3] In medieval medicine the Latin word came to mean a symptom or sudden illness, the source of the sense “stroke”.^[7]

The sense “unevenness of the ground” and accidentato “hilly” are calques on the French noun and on accidenté.^[2] The LEI explains them as a semantic loan from the French phrase accident de terrain of the naturalist Saussure.^[2][5] accidempoli, acciderba and accipicchia are euphemistic distortions of the plural used as an exclamation.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Restoro d'Arezzo, 1282, in the philosophical sense: what may or may not belong to a being, and may change without changing its essence.^[2][8] The sense “chance event” follows in Guittone, before 1294.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Cecco d'Ascoli, before 1327, has both the sense “misfortune, calamity” and the medical sense “stroke, sudden illness”.^[2] DEI places the bad sense only at the end of the 15th century, like that of French accident.^[7] The phrase per accidente “by chance” is found from 1308, in Dante.^[5] In music the word has named the sign that alters a note since V. Galilei, 1581, and the old grammarians used it for the inflection of words.^[2][9]

In the 19th century the word took on colloquial uses.^[2] DELI explains the exclamation as short for curses such as ti vengano accidenti.^[2] The plural accidenti! as an exclamation of anger or surprise is in Belli's Roman dialect from 1829 and in the Tommaseo–Bellini dictionary in 1865.^[2] For a tiresome person it is in Verga, before 1873.^[2] Today the word also stands in negative phrases for “nothing at all”: non capisco un accidente.^[4][10]

Timeline

• 1282 – Restoro d'Arezzo uses accidente as a term of philosophy.^[2][8]
• Before 1294 – Guittone uses it for “chance event”.^[2]
• Before 1327 – Cecco d'Ascoli uses it for “misfortune” and “stroke”.^[2]
• 1581 – V. Galilei uses it for a sign altering a note in music.^[2]
• 1829 – Belli uses the exclamation accidenti! in Roman dialect.^[2]
• 1844 – The sense “unevenness of the ground” appears in the Milanese press.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An unforeseen event, chance occurrence, usually unpleasant; a misfortune: per accidente, by chance.^[4][11][12]
2. (medicine) A sudden complication in an illness;^[4][10][12] (colloquial) a stroke or sudden illness, often in curses.^[4][10][12]
3. (colloquial) A tiresome or troublesome person or thing: quell'accidente di motorino.^[4][10][12]
4. (colloquial) In negative phrases, nothing at all: qui non funziona un accidente.^[4][10]
5. (philosophy) What belongs to a thing without being part of its essence.^[4][11][12]
6. (grammar) An inflectional change of the variable parts of speech.^[4][9]
7. (music) An accidental, a sign that alters a note.^[4][1]
8. An unevenness of the ground.^[4][2]

Word family

• accidentale
• accidentalità
• accidentato
• accidempoli
• acciderba
• accipicchia

Related words

• accadere
• cadere
• incidente
• Latin accidō

Usage notes

Accidenti! is used alone as an exclamation of anger, surprise or admiration.^[2][13] DEI treats the medical and musical senses as separate words, while DELI and Nocentini keep them under one.^[7][2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
3. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
5. ^ a b c d Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 1, 277
6. ^ a b Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 27
8. ^ a b Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
9. ^ a b Prati, Angelico (1951), Vocabolario etimologico italiano, Milano: Garzanti, p. 17
10. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
12. ^ a b c d e Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
13. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli