NEA New English Academy: Fwd: accidence: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Fwd: accidence: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

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From: Dictionary.com <doctor@dictionary.com>
Date: Sun, Oct 12, 2014 at 2:05 AM
Subject: accidence: Dictionary.com Word of the Day
To: hectorpinillos@gmail.com

Oct. 12, 2014

accidence

\AK-si-duhns\

noun
1. the rudiments or essentials of a subject.
2. Grammar. a. the study of inflection as a grammatical device. b. the inflections so studied.

Quotes

Now, the subjective determination of yourself you apply to an external; the accidence of your Ego you change into an accidence of the thing, which is to be external, of a substance which is to be extended in and to fill up space.
-- Johann Gottlieb Fichte, translated by A.E. Kroeger, Science of Knowledge, 1868

Origin

Accidence likely comes from the Latin grammatical term accidentia which referred to the part of grammar dealing with inflection. This sense was then extended to the broader fundamentals of a subject. Predictably, though, accidence is related to the word accident, from the Latin accidere meaning "to befall."

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