accident

Forms

accident n (plural accidente)^[1] Iorgovici's first record has the form accidente; the old variants accidinte and acident are also recorded.^[2] In music it is masculine, with the plural accidenți.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French accident and directly borrowed from Latin accidēns, as DEX, MDA2 and the neologism dictionaries give it.^[3][4][5] DELR and Tiktin add Italian accidente, and Ciorănescu names French alone.^[2][6][7] The variant accidinte is a Romanianized form.^[2] The Latin word is the present participle of accidō (“to fall upon, happen”), formed ad- and cadō (“to fall”); it rendered the Greek philosophical term Ancient Greek συμβεβηκός (sumbebēkós) “non-essential property”.^[2][8] The verb meaning “to fall” is also the source of Romanian cădea.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Iorgovici's 1799 list of proposed new words, in the form accidente; the form accident is first found in I. Golescu about 1832.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The word came with the general sense “an unforeseen event”, and the philosophical sense, a non-essential property of a thing, was used too.^[2][3] The sense “mishap that causes damage, injury or death” became the main one: DA in 1913 gives accident de drum de fier “railway accident” as its example.^[10][3] Specialized senses followed: an unevenness of the ground (accident de teren), a sign that alters a note in music, a sudden complication in an illness, and in linguistics accident fonetic, a sporadic sound change.^[3][4]

The family is French as much as Romanian: accidental (c. 1832) and accidentat “uneven, rough” (1847) were borrowed from French, while accidenta “to injure in an accident” (1939) may be French or a Romanian derivative.^[2]

Timeline

• 1799 – accidente in Iorgovici's list of proposed new words, the first record.^[2][6]
• c. 1832 – accident in I. Golescu, and accidental in Cornelli.^[2]
• 1847 – accidentat “uneven” in Heliade-Rădulescu.^[2]
• 1913 – accident de drum de fier “railway accident” in DA.^[10]
• 1939 – accidenta “to injure in an accident”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An accident: an unforeseen event that interrupts the normal course of things, often causing damage, injury or death: accident rutier “road accident”.^[3][1]
2. (philosophy) A non-essential, passing property of a thing.^[3]
3. (geography) An unevenness of the ground (accident de teren).^[3]
4. (linguistics) Accident fonetic: a sporadic sound change, such as metathesis.^[3][5]
5. (music, masculine) An accidental: a sharp, flat or natural, or the sign for it.^[3][4]
6. (medicine) An unexpected complication in the course of an illness.^[3]

Word family

• accidenta
• autoaccidenta

Related words

• accidental
• accidentat
• accidență
• incident
• cădea
• French accident

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. accident
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 6
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 7
5. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. accident
6. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. accident
7. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. accident
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 24
10. ^ a b Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. accident