accidens

English

From Latin [Term?].

accidens (plural accidentia)

(logic) Synonym of accident (“a property, fact, or relation that is the result of chance or is nonessential or nonsubstantive”).
- 1886, Prasanna K. Roy, A Text-book of Deductive Logic: For the Use of Students, page 83:
  An Accidens (or accident) of an individual, genus, or species is any attribute which is possessed by it, and which does not follow from, or form a part of, its comprehension. […] If, on the other hand, an accidens is sometimes present and sometimes absent in an individual, […]
- 1896, James Welton, A Manual of Logic, volume 1, page 86:
  But, where there is no apparent reason why the attribute should always be found in the individuals of a class, it is called an Accidens.

Present active participle of accidō (“fall down or upon; happen”).

accidēns (genitive accidentis); third-declension one-termination participle

	masc./fem.	neuter	masc./fem.	neuter
	singular		plural
nominative	accidēns		accidentēs	accidentia
genitive	accidentis		accidentium
dative	accidentī		accidentibus
accusative	accidentem	accidēns	accidentēs accidentīs	accidentia
ablative	accidente accidentī¹		accidentibus
vocative	accidēns		accidentēs	accidentia

¹When used purely as an adjective.

accidēns n (genitive accidentis); third declension

accident, circumstance (chance event)
- 1695, Teutsch-Lateinisches WörterBüchlein Zum Nutz und Ergötzung der Schuljugend zusammengetragen, Und mit 6000. darzu dienlichen Bildern gezieret. Deme noch über das eine kurtzgefaste Lateinische Sprach-Übung Und Zimliche Anzahl Auserlesener Sprüche beygefüget. — Dictionariolum germanico-latinum In Usum & delectationem Scholasticae Juventutis concinnatum, & aliquot millibus huic rei inservientibus Iconibus illustratum. Cui insuper accessit, Epitome Grammatices Latinae cum selectarum Sententiarum Farragine., Nuremberg (Nürnberg, Noriberga), p.197:
  Accidentia nominum sunt septem: Species, Figura, Persona, Genus, Declinatio, Numerus, & Casus.
  Accidents of nouns are seven: species, shape/figure, person, gender, declination, number, & case.

Third-declension noun (neuter, pure i-stem).

Form of the verb accīdō (“fell, cut down; use up; impair”).

accīdēns (genitive accīdentis); third-declension one-termination participle

	masc./fem.	neuter	masc./fem.	neuter
	singular		plural
nominative	accīdēns		accīdentēs	accīdentia
genitive	accīdentis		accīdentium
dative	accīdentī		accīdentibus
accusative	accīdentem	accīdēns	accīdentēs accīdentīs	accīdentia
ablative	accīdente accīdentī¹		accīdentibus
vocative	accīdēns		accīdentēs	accīdentia

¹When used purely as an adjective.

“accidens”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
“accidens”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

accidens m