accident: [14] Etymologically, an accident is simply ‘something which happens’ – ‘an event’. That was what the word originally meant in English, and it was only subsequently that the senses ‘something which happens by chance’ and ‘mishap’ developed. It comes from the Latin verb cadere ‘fall’ (also the source of such diverse English words as case, decadent, and deciduous).
The addition of the prefix ad- ‘to’ produced accidere, literally ‘fall to’, hence ‘happen to’. Its present participle was used as an adjective in the Latin phrase rēs accidēns ‘thing happening’, and accidēns soon took on the role of a noun on its own, passing (in its stem form accident-) into Old French and thence into English. => case, decadent, deciduous
accident (n.)
late 14c., "an occurrence, incident, event," from Old French accident (12c.), from Latin accidentem (nominative accidens), present participle of accidere "happen, fall out, fall upon," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + cadere "fall" (see case (n.1)). Meaning grew from "something that happens, an event," to "something that happens by chance," then "mishap." Philosophical sense "non-essential characteristic of a thing" is late 14c. Meaning "unplanned child" is attested by 1932.
双语例句
1. Captain Cook safely navigated his ship without accident for 100 voyages.
库克船长驾驶的船安全出航100次无事故。
来自柯林斯例句
2. Through some unfortunate accident, the information reached me a day late.
由于发生了不幸的意外，我知道消息的时候已经晚了一天。
来自柯林斯例句
3. The police say his death was an accident, officially at least.
警方说他的死是个意外，起码官方消息如此。
来自柯林斯例句
4. The accident happened on a notorious black spot on the A43.
事故发生在A43号公路上一个出了名的事故多发地段。
来自柯林斯例句
5. The police say the killing of the young man was an accident.