accident-proneadj.n.
/ˈaksᵻd(ə)ntˌprəʊn/, U.S. /ˈæksədəntˌproʊn/ A. adj.
Of a person: predisposed or likely to suffer an accident or mischance. Of a thing: likely to cause an accident.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > adversity > calamity or misfortune > [adjective] > doomed to misfortune > attracting accidents
accident-prone1926
1926 E. Farmer & E. G. Chambers Psychol. Study Accident Rates 3 A person can be said to be accident prone without any knowledge of the number of accidents he has sustained.
1951 Sci. Amer. Aug. 68/3 A pushed conveyance such as a wheelbarrow..is..less accident-prone than the pulled four-wheel truck.
1984 J. Updike Hugging Shore (1985) 169 He was accident-prone to a grotesque degree, and survived more injuries than normally befall a dozen men.
2004 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 25 June a15/4 In the most accident-prone part of the route, red lights halt cars from all directions when a train is passing through, a signal pattern called ‘pre-emptive red’.
B. n.
With the. People who are accident-prone, regarded collectively.
ΚΠ
1926 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 11 Dec. 1132/2 The accident-prone were industrially inefficient and more liable to report sick.
1952 Lancet 28 June 1296/1 Flanders Dunbar made a study of the accident-prone which bears out reasonable expectations.
1976 N. A. Ashford Crisis in Workplace (1982) iii. 112 This would account for the difficulties found in attempting to devise selection tests for the accident prone.
2007 Park Home & Holiday Caravan Jan. 32/2 The company also offers ‘stainaway’ qualities for the accident prone!
Derivatives
ˈaccident-proneness n. predisposition or likelihood to suffer an accident.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > adversity > calamity or misfortune > [noun] > misfortune or ill-luck > likelihood of attracting an accident
accident-proneness1926
1926 E. Farmer & E. G. Chambers Psychol. Study Accident Rates 3 ‘Accident proneness’ implies the possession of those qualities which have been found to lead to an undue number of accidents.
1954 A. Koestler Invisible Writing xv. 167 Their accident-proneness was entirely due to the hazard of a Jewish origin.
1996 Daily Express 26 June 40/2 The drawbacks..are a lack of common sense and accident-proneness.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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adj.n.1926