accidentaladj.n.adv.

Brit.

/ˌaksᵻˈdɛntl/, U.S.

/ˌæksəˈdɛn(t)l/

Forms: Middle English accidentale, Middle English acidentall, Middle English–1500s accydentall, Middle English–1600s accidentall, Middle English– accidental, 1500s accydentale, 1600s accedentall (Scottish).

Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Etymons: French accidentel; Latin accidentalis.

Etymology: < Anglo-Norman and Middle French accidentel, Middle French accidental (French accidentel ) that happens by chance (13th cent. in Old French), not forming part of the substance or essence (13th cent.), secondary, not innate, transitory, ephemeral (14th cent.) and its etymon post-classical Latin accidentalis not forming part of the substance or essence (6th cent. in Boethius; from 11th cent. in British sources), incidental, secondary, subsidiary (from 12th cent. in British sources), also accidentale (neuter noun) incident, accidental circumstance (from 13th cent. in British sources) < classical Latin accident- , accidēns (see accident n.) + -ālis -al suffix¹. Compare Catalan accidental (13th cent.), Spanish accidental (13th cent.), Portuguese acidental (15th cent.), Italian accidentale (13th cent.). Compare accident n., accidence n.¹, and later accidential adj.In sense A. 5 after French couleur accidentelle (Buffon 1743, in Mém. de l'Acad. des Sci. (1746) 147).

A. adj.

I. Present but not essential.

1. Not essential to the existence of a thing; not necessarily present, incidental, secondary, subsidiary.

ΘΚΠ

the world > existence and causation > existence > extrinsicality or externality > [adjective] > non-essential

accidental1387

casual1398

incident1523

accidentary?1549

accessarya1555

chanceablea1557

accessory1563

circumstant1583

advenient1594

adventive1605

adventitial1607

circumstantial1608

contingent1628

adventious1633

incidental1644

accessional1646

contingential1647

non-essential1647

extra-essential1667

attachable1798

dividuous1816

inessential1832

peripheral1902

1387–8 Petition London Mercers in R. W. Chambers & M. Daunt Bk. London Eng. (1931) 36 Sithen thise wronges bifore saide han ben vsed as accidental or comune braunches outward, it sheweth wel the rote of hem is a ragged subiect or stok inward, that is the forsaid Brere or brembre.

c1405 (c1390) G. Chaucer Melibeus (Hengwrt) (2003) §430 The fer cause is almyghty god..the neer cause is thy thre enemys, the cause accidental was hate.

c1443 R. Pecock Reule of Crysten Religioun (1927) 144 Bisidis þis essencial and princypal joie..we schulen haue oþere accidental joies or secundarie joies.

1535 W. Marshall tr. Marsilius of Padua Def. of Peace i. xi. f. 24^v The lawe is without all peruerse affeccyon... Yt doth Cyuylye wel or cyuylye euyll, for all the other thyngis ar but accidentall to the lawe & without the lawe.

1587 J. Bridges Def. Govt. Church of Eng. xiv. 1211 Necessitie..enforceth the breaking of the ceremonies, all which is but accidentall to them, and no preiudice to the ordinarie and generall vse of the same ceremonies vniformitie.

1610 J. Guillim Display of Heraldrie i. viii. 31 An Abatement is an accidentall mark annexed to Coate-armour, denoting some vngentleman-like, dishonorable, or disloiall demeanour, qualitie, or staine, in the Bearer.

1670 R. Baxter Cure Church-div. 18 If in any integral or accidental point you think that you are wiser.

1703 W. Burkitt Expos. Notes New Test. Matt. xxvi. 75 Either the first Inticers, or the accidental Occasion, were Women.

1750 S. Johnson Rambler No. 150. ⁋4 Those accidental benefits which prudence may confer on every state.

1800 W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. 10 8 Happy the youth, who..lets go only the conventional and the accidental [in religion].

1858 F. W. Robertson Lect. ii. 148 Poetry is a something to which words are the accidental, not by any means the essential form.

1908 Amer. Rev. of Rev. July 15/1 Since..negro voters have been accustomed to support the Republican ticket, it would be ridiculous for them to go over to the Democratic party on an accidental point.

1971 H. Gray tr. A. Bazin What is Cinema? II. 170 It is important to know if the ubiquitousness of eroticism is only the accidental result of the free capitalist play of supply and demand.

2009 W. Doyle Aristocracy & its Enemies in Age of Revol. iii. 80 Nobility was an ‘accidental’..quality. However old it was, roture was older. It went back to Adam himself.

2. Philosophy. In Aristotelian thought: relating to or denoting properties which are not essential to something's nature (see accident n. 1a); non-essential.

ΘΚΠ

the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > logic > logical proposition > [adjective] > of or assigning an attribute > of or relating to accidents

accidentala1398

casual1398

accidentary?1549

contingent1628

contingential1647

non-essential1843

a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 130 Som fourme is essencial & som accidental..but eueryche fourme accidental nediþ a fourme substancyal þat is cause of fourme accidentalis.

1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. FFFvi^v Howe to the actiue lyfe perteyneth accidentall ioye, but to the contemplatiue, the substanciall crowne of glory.

1570 J. Foxe Actes & Monumentes (rev. ed.) II. 1800/2 Pendleton sayd that the colour [of bread] was the earthly thyng, and called it an accidentall substance.

1628 T. Spencer Art of Logick liii. 277 The second, and third [figures] haue perfection essentiall, but not accidentall.

1678 T. Gale Court of Gentiles: Pt. IV iii. 6 Moral Bonitie and Vitiositie are differences of human acts merely accidental or modal.

1725 I. Watts Logick i. ii. §4. 34 Adherent or improper Modes arise from the joining of some accidental Substance to the chief Subject, which yet may be separated from it.

1788 T. Reid Ess. Active Powers Man i. i. 513 There are other relative notions that are not taken from accidental relations.

1846 J. S. Mill Syst. Logic (ed. 2) i. vi. §2. 147 All properties, not of the essence of the thing, were called its accidents..and the propositions in which any of these were predicated of it were called Accidental Propositions.

1904 Philos. Rev. 13 12 The judgments of demonstration must contain nothing but ‘essential’ properties, since a necessary conclusion cannot be derived from what is ‘accidental’.

1974 E. J. Ashworth Lang. & Logic in Post-medieval Period ii. 65 Truth and falsity are accidental properties of the proposition.

2003 P. Hoffmann Nothing so Absurd i. 26 An accidental property is one that an individual can relinquish and yet remain the same individual.

3. Music. Of a note: raised or lowered by one or two semitones, in momentary departure from the key signature; being or marked with a sign (see sense B. 2) indicating this.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > the arts > music > written or printed music > notation > [adjective] > signs altering pitch

accidental1597

1597 T. Morley Plaine & Easie Introd. Musicke iii. 177 The naturall motions are those which are naturallie made betwixt the keyes without the mixture of any accidentall signe or corde, be it either flat or sharpe.

1688 J. Wallis in T. Salmon Proposal to perform Musick 39 Besides these, there are some Accidental Flats and Sharps, which occur in the middle of the Musick, affecting some one Note.

1737 J. F. Lampe Plain & Compend. Method teaching Thorough Bass 16 The Accompanyment must be made with the like Sharp or Flat throughout, except when an accidental Flat, Sharp or a Natural is marked over the Bass, which then only accompanies that, over which it stands.

1778 J. Thomson Rudim. of Music x. 48 An accidental flat or sharp coming before any note, in order to introduce an artificial semitone, affects, in general, only the note before which it is placed.

1806 J. W. Callcott Musical Gram. v. 55 Accidental Flats and Sharps only affect the Notes which they immediately precede.

1867 G. A. Macfarren Six Lect. Harmony i. 23 The employment in the minor of an accidental sharp or natural.

1917 Atlantic Educ. Jrnl. 128 A note which is not altered by the signature is raised..by an accidental sharp sign and lowered by an accidental flat sign.

1969 B. H. Bronson Ballad as Song xiv. 231 A punch could indicate which modal scale was being employed, and space could be saved for noting accidental sharps or flats.

1996 S. Youens Schubert's Poets (1999) iii. 225 The appearance on the page of a thicket of accidental flats followed by a thicket of accidental sharps and naturals tells the eye as well as the ear of metamorphosis.

4. Painting. Designating (the effects of) secondary or artificial light which falls on a subject, introduced esp. to create contrast. Now rare.

ΚΠ

1612 H. Peacham Gentlemans Exercise i. x. 30 The first light I call that which proceedeth immediately from a lightned bodie, as the beames of the sunne. The second is an accidental light dispreading it selfe into the aire or medium, proceeding from the other.

1738 J. F. Fritsch tr. G. de Lairesse Art of Painting v. xviii. 239 This would, in my Opinion, have a fine Effect, especially if the said accidental Lights were mostly ordered in dark Places.

1796 C. Tomkins Tour Isle of Wight I. 134 Though I have seen a very splendid effect from an accidental light on a white object, yet I think it a hue, which hurts, oftener than it improves the scene.

1845 Dublin Univ. Mag. Dec. 676/1 Whether a composition..should borrow its effects from accidental light or repoussoir foregrounds, must be left to the decision of the academical professors.

1878 J. F. Clarke Memorial & Biogr. Sketches xvi. 331 Let there be no contrasts of color, no accidental lights, no long-reaching perspectives, no gradation of tints.

1908 New Eng. Mag. May 364/1 He looks for the natural color, the texture, the stains, the weathering, the accidental lights and shadows.

5. Physiology. Designating colour sensations that do not result from direct perception of a stimulus; esp. designating an after-image appearing in a complementary colour. Now rare.

ΚΠ

1774 Monthly Rev. 51 534 The work is terminated by a memoir on the ‘Accidental Colours’ [Fr. couleurs accidentelles], first observed by the Author [sc. Buffon].

1849 M. Somerville On Connexion Physical Sci. (ed. 8) §19. 184 After looking steadily for a short time at a coloured object, such as a red wafer, on turning the eyes to a white substance, a green image of the wafer appears, which is called the accidental colour of red. All tints have their accidental colours.

1873 E. Atkinson tr. A. Ganot Elem. Treat. Physics (ed. 6) vii. vi. 506 Accidental haloes are the colours which, instead of succeeding the impression of an object like accidental colours, appear round the object itself when it is looked at fixedly.

1998 N. Leland Exploring Color 13/1 We know about such phenomena as simultaneous contrast (the result of placing two colours side by side), successive contrast (the complementary afterimage that appears after an object is removed from view, accidental color (the consequence of injury, eye pressure or drug use) and color constancy (the accommodation of the eye for changes in illumination).

II. Relating to or occurring by chance or occasionally.

a. That may occur from time to time as a result of chance; characterized by or relating to chance circumstances or to a chance occasion; occasional.

ΘΚΠ

the world > existence and causation > causation > chance or causelessness > [adjective]

byc1050

casualc1374

fortuitc1374

fortunelc1374

fortunousc1374

causelessc1386

adventurousc1405

accidental1502

fortunable1509

happya1522

chanceable1549

occasional1569

accidentary1581

emergent1593

streave1598

contingent1604

happening1621

incidental1644

lucky1648

sporadical1654

temerarious1660

spontaneous1664

incidentarya1670

chance1676

antrin?1725

fortuitous1806

sporadic1821

windfall1845

chanced1853

blind1873

happenchance1905

happenstance1905

the world > existence and causation > causation > chance or causelessness > [adjective] > accidental or that is by chance

accidentc1450

accidental1502

1502 tr. Ordynarye of Crysten Men (de Worde) v. vii. sig. ss.iii ^v The prayse of the good dedes done in the estate of mortall synne is a Ioye accydentale.

1541 T. Elyot Castel of Helthe (new ed.) 39 Some accidentall cause, as syckenes, or moche studye.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Measure for Measure (1623) iii. i. 151 Oh fie, fie, fie: Thy sinn's not accidentall, but a Trade.

1675 J. Smith Horol. Dialogues 24 It might be some accidental injury in the conveiance from one place to another.

1712 J. Addison Spectator No. 414. ¶2 Those accidental Landskips of Trees, Clouds and Cities, that are sometimes found in the Veins of Marble.

1772 T. Pennant Tours Scotl. (1774) 341 Discovered by the accidental digging of peat.

1825 C. Waterton Wanderings in S. Amer. i. i. 109 The accidental traveller..can merely mark the outlines of the path he has trodden.

1858 T. Carlyle Hist. Friedrich II of Prussia I. i. iii. 40 Whiffs of jealousy..the product of accidental moodinesses in him.

1921 F. S. Mathews Field Bk. Wild Birds & their Music (rev. ed.) Introd. p. vii Several of the song-records, notably those of the Lincoln Sparrow..were quite accidental acquisitions.

2001 J. Nickell in H. Crafts Bondwoman's Narr. (2002) 292 Transmitted light shows the paper to be unwatermarked except for a type of ‘accidental watermark’ indicative of the papermaking process.

b. Chiefly Ornithology. Of a bird or other animal: that occurs only rarely in a particular region, having wandered outside its normal area of distribution or migration; that is a vagrant (vagrant n. and adj. Additions 4). Cf. sense B. 5.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > by habits or actions > [adjective] > wandering

waff1720

vagrant1743

accidental1821

1821 E. Sabine in W. E. Parry Jrnl. Voy. Discov. North-west Passage (ed. 2) App. X. p. cxcv As they..feed on mosquitoes and other winged insects, which are very rare in the North Georgian Islands, it is more than probable that the present individual was an accidental visitor, and had died from the want of food.

1851 J. E. Gray List Specimens Brit. Animals Brit. Mus.: Fish 119 Balistes Capriscus. Mediterranean File-Fish... Coast (accidental visitor). Sussex, Aug. 1827.

1892 Wilson Q. 4 32 Peucœa ruficeps eremœca. This rare south-western sub-species is recorded..as accidental at Decatur, Texas.

1907 J. C. Kershaw Butterflies Hongkong 9 Danais (Anosia) archippus... Merely an accidental visitor at present, occurring at long intervals.

1913 Wilson Bull. 25 44 Bay-breasted Warbler... A rare or accidental migrant.

1989 Nature Conservancy Mar. 11/1 Among the more than 300 species on the area's bird list are..accidental wanderers like oldsquaws and white-winged scoters.

1998 Colonial Waterbirds 21 89/1 The nominate race [of great blue heron] is considered an accidental visitor to the northern Venezuela mainland.

a. That happens by chance, unintentionally, or unexpectedly; occurring or produced by accident. Esp. in later use often contextually of mischance or mistake. (Now the predominant sense.)

ΚΠ

1555 R. Eden in tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde Pref. sig. c.iii^v They may also herewith imbibe trewe religion as a thing accidental although neyther they nor we shulde seeke the same.

1578 T. Tymme tr. J. Calvin Comm. Genesis 84 As though all the crookedness of our disposition were not accidental.

1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 341 Accidentall diseases be those that come by chaunce, as by surfetting of cold, heat, and such like thing.

1653 I. Walton Compl. Angler i. 14 I made an accidental mention of it.

1710 J. Swift Tale of Tub (ed. 5) Apol. sig. a1 The accidental encountring of a single Thought.

a1774 A. Tucker Light of Nature Pursued (1777) III. i. 230 A man shoots at a rat in his yard, and kills a chicken which he did not intend, therefore we call this accidental.

1830 C. Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 256 They are causes, therefore, as constant as the tides themselves, and, like them, depend on no temporary or accidental circumstances.

1884 Cent. Mag. Dec. 261/2 With a self-closing faucet for drawing water, there need be provided for the protection of the ceiling below only such simple means of outlet..as will carry the slight drip that may come from an accidental leak.

1914 I. Shone Evol. Greater Britain's Sewage-drainage Syst. 198 A simple arrangement..to prevent..pressure being produced in the sewers by any accidental restriction of the airway.

1967 Canad. Med. Assoc. Jrnl. 29 July 227/1 Weight is not a problem in a therapeutic hyperbaric chamber, and this allows the use of many safeguards against accidental fire.

2005 J. Martyn Ringfort to Runway ii. v. 162 It's obvious that Scully, Hickey, O'Sullivan, Ellison and Doyle go back a bit. Theirs was no accidental meeting prior to McCarthy's Fly-In.

b. Chiefly Law. Of a death: caused by an unexpected or chance incident; occurring as the unintended consequence of an action. Frequently in accidental death.In legal contexts distinguished as a cause of death from natural causes (old age or disease), homicide, and suicide. In the United Kingdom, also termed death by misadventure (see misadventure n. 2).

ΚΠ

1640 T. Nabbes Unfortunate Mother v. sig. H4^v I will stand up and Justifie my actions. First for the death of your unlawfull brothers Twas accidentall, not by me determin'd.

1649 S. Rutherford Free Disputation xxv. 329 I see not how the Magistrate is not to judge according to the word of God, what is wilfull murder, and so deserveth death, by the Law of God, what is accidentall killing and deserveth no death, but a Refuge and Maneprize.

1707 W. Forbes Duty & Powers Justices of Peace Scotl. i. 11 A Coroner gets nothing for inquiring about any accidental Death.

1755 Gentleman's Mag. May 232/2 The inquest..brought in their verdict accidental death by an ox, and found the ox a deodand.

1839 Law Mag. 22 25 The question, whether for want of due caution, a party were to be considered guilty of manslaughter, or the death was merely accidental, has also been regarded as a question of law.

1882 Pall Mall Gaz. 10 May 3/1 The jury..deciding after some hesitation to find only accidental death.

1922 Daily Mail 11 Nov. 7 Army Officer Gassed in his Bath... Accidental Death, the result of poisoning by a gas escape from a geyser.

1993 Esquire Nov. 86/2 Lawyers defending insurance companies in suicide cases—cases, that is, in which families are suing to collect premiums, claiming accidental death—have to wrestle with a legal bear called ‘presumption against suicide’.

2007 W. M. Dale & W. S. Becker Crime Scene 96 The cause of death was determined to be acute cocaine intoxication and the death was ruled accidental.

B. n.

a. Something non-essential, subsidiary, or incidental; a secondary feature. Cf. senses A. 1, A. 2.

ΘΚΠ

the world > existence and causation > existence > extrinsicality or externality > [noun] > non-essentialness > that which is non-essential or accident

accidentala1398

adventionc1475

accident1491

circumstance1599

under-accident1632

contingential1647

modality1647

adventitial1652

extrinsical1652

adventition1661

ornamental1774

inessential1778

non-essential1806

a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 130 In philosophris hit is seide þat forma wiþ matere is cause of all accidentales.

c1443 R. Pecock Reule of Crysten Religioun (1927) 495 (MED) Þe kynde and þe nature of oure lijf here..is lijk to þe kynde and þe nature of oure lijf which we schule haue in heuene þere, þouȝ al þer be difference in accidentals.

1577 T. Vautrollier tr. M. Luther Comm. Epist. to Galathians (new ed.) f. 185 It is not the proper office of Christ..to teach the law, but an accidentall or a byoffice.

1629 H. Burton Babel No Bethel 15 He makes soundnes..to be the accidental to a true Church.

1678 V. Alsop Melius Inquirendum ii. v. 235 To call them [sc. Christ's institutions] the Circumstantials, the Accidentals, the minutes, the Punctilio's, and, if need be, the Petty-Johns of Religion.

1726 J. Ayliffe Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani 75 Altho' a Custom introduc'd against the Substantials of an Appeal be not valid..yet a Custom may be introduc'd against the Accidentals of an Appeal.

1791 G. F. A. Wendeborn View Eng. II. ii. 389 Times, circumstances, and situations, produce changes, though not in what relates to the essentials of religion, yet in matters relative to externals and accidentals.

1824 Friend of India Feb. 37 That error which is but too common among mortals, to take accidentals for essentials.

1874 St. Louis Med. & Surg. Jrnl. 31 85 Another example of an accidental is found in oedema occasionally occurring in eczema.

1921 E. Walker in F. S. Marvin Recent Devel. European Thought xi. 286 During the last generation an advance in material complexity is obvious, even though the complexity may often enough be one of accidentals rather than essentials.

2008 R. Sokolowski Phenomenol. of Human Person ii. vii. 104 What is dangerous and misleading is the unselfconscious confusion of accidentals with essentials.

b. Textual Criticism. Any scribal or typographical feature of a text that is not essential to the author's meaning. Cf. accident n. 1b.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > copiousness > [noun] > action of padding > matter used as padding > matter not essential to author's meaning

accident1942

accidental1942

1942 W. W. Greg Editorial Probl. Shakespeare p. liv It is desirable that the preservation of accidentals should be seen in proper perspective.

1959 Notes & Queries 204 119/2 If no long s was available in his fount, it would surely have been better to have substituted the modern s for this ‘accidental’ of early script and typography.

1964 Notes & Queries 209 179/1 Such variants as & for and throughout suggest that Fischer is more faithful than Clark to accidentals.

1997 Ambix 44 99 In the matter of accidentals the editor tells us that he has normalized archaic i/j and u/v alternatives on modern practice.

2. Music. A sharp, flat, or natural sign placed (in modern practice) before a note to mark it as accidental (see sense A. 3); (also) a note marked in this way.

ΘΚΠ

society > leisure > the arts > music > written or printed music > notation > [noun] > signs altering pitch

bemol1609

sharp1653

B sharp1654

natural1724

accidental1868

flat1872

cancel1912

1796 A. F. C. Kollmann Ess. Musical Harmony xiv. 112 The same strict reversion can also be obtained in major as well as minor, though the key note or its octave be made the fixed note, when accidentals are used in the reversion.

1829 J. F. Burrowes Piano-forte Primer (new ed.) x. 50 Why are the Sixth and Seventh Notes of the Ascending Minor Scale raised by Accidentals?

1868 F. A. G. Ouseley Treat. Harmony (1875) i. 6 The use of them [sc. sharps, flats, etc.] both as accidentals and in the signature.

1917 Atlantic Educ. Jrnl. 128 When a note which is sharped or flatted in the signature is changed in the scale it is done by a natural or cancel sign written as an accidental.

1991 J. Caldwell Oxf. Hist. Eng. Music I. iii. 152 The Brussels Mass..is remarkably bold in its melodic floridity and the free use of accidentals.

3. Painting. The effect created by secondary or artificial light falling on a subject, introduced esp. to create contrast. Now rare.

ΚΠ

1824 J. Elmes Gen. Dict. Fine Arts (at cited word) Accidentals or accidents in art are various; in painting accidental lights are those fortuitous effects which, occasioned by rays of light falling casually on certain objects, render them more bright and luminous than usual, and produce a strong and marked opposition to the shadows, which are rendered apparently still darker by contrast.

1852 G. Ripley & B. Taylor Hand-bk. Lit. & Fine Arts I. 5/2 There are some fine instances of accidentals in Raphael's Transfiguration, and particularly in the celebrated picture, the Notte of Coreggio, in which the light emanates from the infant Christ.

1938 C. Muncaster Student's Bk. Water-colour Painting vi. 43 Since accidentals in reflections are much more concrete than in skies, the call for wet treatment is much less.

4. With the. That which happens by chance. Cf. senses A. 6a, A. 7a.

ΘΚΠ

the world > existence and causation > causation > chance or causelessness > [noun] > chance or fortuitous circumstance

hazard1340

accidencea1393

a venture's strokec1450

chance1487

contingent1548

circumstance1599

lotterya1616

accidency1645

by-accident1648

frisk1665

accidentala1834

a1834 S. T. Coleridge Lit. Remains (1836) II. 187 The accidental is no where the groundwork of the passions, but that which is catholic, which in all ages has been, and ever will be, close and native to the heart of man.

1882 Tract Mag. 13 116 There is more than the accidental in each case. In both God is honoured, and the best interests of mankind are promoted.

1931 Observer 17 May 17/7 The physicist may arrive at the paradoxal conclusion that the accidental is the root of causality.

1955 Bull. Atomic Scientists Apr. 108/2 The freedom of science is so important to its progress just because it allows the accidental to occur.

2009 J. M. Barker Tactile Eye i. 32 The connection between contact and contingency..is worth mentioning because quite often, the touch of film and viewer across one another's skins has a quality of the accidental.

5. Chiefly Ornithology. An accidental bird or other animal; = vagrant n. and adj. Additions 4.

ΘΚΠ

the world > animals > birds > actions or bird defined by > [noun] > migration > that is found outside normal area of migration

accidental1878

vagrant1920

1878 Bull. Nuttall Ornithol. Club 3 92 Whether P. pictus is an accidental or a regular winter visitor in Texas, I am unable to state.

1914 Condor 16 97 The long list of accidentals, second only to the transients in numbers, is probably one result of the host of observers enlisted in furtherance of the work.

1952 J. Fisher Fulmar xiii. 303 There is a March fulmar record from the coast of Maine, clearly an ‘accidental’.

2005 Wilson Bull. 117 424/1 372 bird species (17 orders and 58 families) have been recorded in Azerbaijan; they comprise 107 permanent residents, 139 summer residents, 95 migrants and winter residents, 28 accidentals, and 3 extirpated species.

C. adv.

colloquial. By chance, accidentally.

ΘΚΠ

the world > existence and causation > causation > chance or causelessness > [adverb]

feringc1000

feringlya1300

by casec1300

chancefully1303

lotc1325

peradventurec1325

of chance1330

happilya1375

in hapa1375

upon hapsa1375

casuallyc1384

perchancec1387

chancely1389

by fortune1390

haplyc1390

by (also of) adventurea1393

percasea1393

adventurelyc1400

percase1402

accidently?a1425

adventurously1440

by (good, lucky, etc.) hap?a1450

accidentally1528

chanceably1559

bechance1569

chance1595

casual-wise1601

accidental1622

occasionally1622

fortuitouslya1652

contingently1668

by chance1669

chanceable1709

per-hazard1788

chance-wise1844

1622 S. Rowlands Good Newes & Bad Newes sig. B4 Two canting rogues, that old consorts had bin, Did accidentall at an alehouse meet.

1862 Once a Week 1 Nov. 521/1 They had not met ‘accidental’, and the topic of conversation had not been Robin's work.

1914 Harper's Mag. Feb. 386/1 The next day I happened accidental, more or less, by the Waters' shack.

1998 D. di Prima Dinners & Nightmares 107 I'll call your name wrong and you'll think it happened accidental.

Compounds

accidental point n. (also †point accidental) [after French point accidental (1663 in the passage translated in quot. 1672)] Perspective a point at which a number of parallel lines appear to meet which are not perpendicular to the picture plane; cf. vanishing point at vanishing n. 2; also figurative.

ΚΠ

1672 R. Pricke tr. J. Dubreuil Perspective Pract. 12 Points Contingent or Accidental [Fr. Points Accidentaux], Are certain Points where the Objects do end, which may be cast negligently, and without order, under the Plane.

1782 European Mag. & London Rev. Aug. 91/1 The breadth of all, and altitude of one of the windows, door, &c. may be set off by the instrument, all others of the same range will tend to the same accidental point K.

1874 K. N. Doggett tr. C. Blanc Gram. Painting & Engraving i. viii. 54 He must also take account of the numerous exceptions certain objects may present, which have no regular relation to the picture..and whose horizontal lines will terminate at an accidental point placed upon the horizon.

1955 Western Polit. Q. 8 402 It has scattered white crosses at our most dangerous political intersection - the accidental point of coincidence of opinion with the line of the Communist party, however wide the angle of intersection.

2003 A. Paoluzzi Geom. Programming for Computer-aided Design ii. x. 372 The perspective has only one accidental point, also called a vanishing point.

This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2011; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

单词	accidental
释义	accidentaladj.n.adv. Brit. /ˌaksᵻˈdɛntl/, U.S. /ˌæksəˈdɛn(t)l/ Forms: Middle English accidentale, Middle English acidentall, Middle English–1500s accydentall, Middle English–1600s accidentall, Middle English– accidental, 1500s accydentale, 1600s accedentall (Scottish). Origin: Of multiple origins. Partly a borrowing from French. Partly a borrowing from Latin. Etymons: French accidentel; Latin accidentalis. Etymology: < Anglo-Norman and Middle French accidentel, Middle French accidental (French accidentel ) that happens by chance (13th cent. in Old French), not forming part of the substance or essence (13th cent.), secondary, not innate, transitory, ephemeral (14th cent.) and its etymon post-classical Latin accidentalis not forming part of the substance or essence (6th cent. in Boethius; from 11th cent. in British sources), incidental, secondary, subsidiary (from 12th cent. in British sources), also accidentale (neuter noun) incident, accidental circumstance (from 13th cent. in British sources) < classical Latin accident- , accidēns (see accident n.) + -ālis -al suffix¹. Compare Catalan accidental (13th cent.), Spanish accidental (13th cent.), Portuguese acidental (15th cent.), Italian accidentale (13th cent.). Compare accident n., accidence n.¹, and later accidential adj.In sense A. 5 after French couleur accidentelle (Buffon 1743, in Mém. de l'Acad. des Sci. (1746) 147). A. adj. I. Present but not essential. 1. Not essential to the existence of a thing; not necessarily present, incidental, secondary, subsidiary. ΘΚΠ the world > existence and causation > existence > extrinsicality or externality > [adjective] > non-essential accidental1387 casual1398 incident1523 accidentary?1549 accessarya1555 chanceablea1557 accessory1563 circumstant1583 advenient1594 adventive1605 adventitial1607 circumstantial1608 contingent1628 adventious1633 incidental1644 accessional1646 contingential1647 non-essential1647 extra-essential1667 attachable1798 dividuous1816 inessential1832 peripheral1902 1387–8 Petition London Mercers in R. W. Chambers & M. Daunt Bk. London Eng. (1931) 36 Sithen thise wronges bifore saide han ben vsed as accidental or comune braunches outward, it sheweth wel the rote of hem is a ragged subiect or stok inward, that is the forsaid Brere or brembre. c1405 (c1390) G. Chaucer Melibeus (Hengwrt) (2003) §430 The fer cause is almyghty god..the neer cause is thy thre enemys, the cause accidental was hate. c1443 R. Pecock Reule of Crysten Religioun (1927) 144 Bisidis þis essencial and princypal joie..we schulen haue oþere accidental joies or secundarie joies. 1535 W. Marshall tr. Marsilius of Padua Def. of Peace i. xi. f. 24^v The lawe is without all peruerse affeccyon... Yt doth Cyuylye wel or cyuylye euyll, for all the other thyngis ar but accidentall to the lawe & without the lawe. 1587 J. Bridges Def. Govt. Church of Eng. xiv. 1211 Necessitie..enforceth the breaking of the ceremonies, all which is but accidentall to them, and no preiudice to the ordinarie and generall vse of the same ceremonies vniformitie. 1610 J. Guillim Display of Heraldrie i. viii. 31 An Abatement is an accidentall mark annexed to Coate-armour, denoting some vngentleman-like, dishonorable, or disloiall demeanour, qualitie, or staine, in the Bearer. 1670 R. Baxter Cure Church-div. 18 If in any integral or accidental point you think that you are wiser. 1703 W. Burkitt Expos. Notes New Test. Matt. xxvi. 75 Either the first Inticers, or the accidental Occasion, were Women. 1750 S. Johnson Rambler No. 150. ⁋4 Those accidental benefits which prudence may confer on every state. 1800 W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. 10 8 Happy the youth, who..lets go only the conventional and the accidental [in religion]. 1858 F. W. Robertson Lect. ii. 148 Poetry is a something to which words are the accidental, not by any means the essential form. 1908 Amer. Rev. of Rev. July 15/1 Since..negro voters have been accustomed to support the Republican ticket, it would be ridiculous for them to go over to the Democratic party on an accidental point. 1971 H. Gray tr. A. Bazin What is Cinema? II. 170 It is important to know if the ubiquitousness of eroticism is only the accidental result of the free capitalist play of supply and demand. 2009 W. Doyle Aristocracy & its Enemies in Age of Revol. iii. 80 Nobility was an ‘accidental’..quality. However old it was, roture was older. It went back to Adam himself. 2. Philosophy. In Aristotelian thought: relating to or denoting properties which are not essential to something's nature (see accident n. 1a); non-essential. ΘΚΠ the mind > mental capacity > philosophy > logic > logical proposition > [adjective] > of or assigning an attribute > of or relating to accidents accidentala1398 casual1398 accidentary?1549 contingent1628 contingential1647 non-essential1843 a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 130 Som fourme is essencial & som accidental..but eueryche fourme accidental nediþ a fourme substancyal þat is cause of fourme accidentalis. 1526 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. FFFvi^v Howe to the actiue lyfe perteyneth accidentall ioye, but to the contemplatiue, the substanciall crowne of glory. 1570 J. Foxe Actes & Monumentes (rev. ed.) II. 1800/2 Pendleton sayd that the colour [of bread] was the earthly thyng, and called it an accidentall substance. 1628 T. Spencer Art of Logick liii. 277 The second, and third [figures] haue perfection essentiall, but not accidentall. 1678 T. Gale Court of Gentiles: Pt. IV iii. 6 Moral Bonitie and Vitiositie are differences of human acts merely accidental or modal. 1725 I. Watts Logick i. ii. §4. 34 Adherent or improper Modes arise from the joining of some accidental Substance to the chief Subject, which yet may be separated from it. 1788 T. Reid Ess. Active Powers Man i. i. 513 There are other relative notions that are not taken from accidental relations. 1846 J. S. Mill Syst. Logic (ed. 2) i. vi. §2. 147 All properties, not of the essence of the thing, were called its accidents..and the propositions in which any of these were predicated of it were called Accidental Propositions. 1904 Philos. Rev. 13 12 The judgments of demonstration must contain nothing but ‘essential’ properties, since a necessary conclusion cannot be derived from what is ‘accidental’. 1974 E. J. Ashworth Lang. & Logic in Post-medieval Period ii. 65 Truth and falsity are accidental properties of the proposition. 2003 P. Hoffmann Nothing so Absurd i. 26 An accidental property is one that an individual can relinquish and yet remain the same individual. 3. Music. Of a note: raised or lowered by one or two semitones, in momentary departure from the key signature; being or marked with a sign (see sense B. 2) indicating this. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > the arts > music > written or printed music > notation > [adjective] > signs altering pitch accidental1597 1597 T. Morley Plaine & Easie Introd. Musicke iii. 177 The naturall motions are those which are naturallie made betwixt the keyes without the mixture of any accidentall signe or corde, be it either flat or sharpe. 1688 J. Wallis in T. Salmon Proposal to perform Musick 39 Besides these, there are some Accidental Flats and Sharps, which occur in the middle of the Musick, affecting some one Note. 1737 J. F. Lampe Plain & Compend. Method teaching Thorough Bass 16 The Accompanyment must be made with the like Sharp or Flat throughout, except when an accidental Flat, Sharp or a Natural is marked over the Bass, which then only accompanies that, over which it stands. 1778 J. Thomson Rudim. of Music x. 48 An accidental flat or sharp coming before any note, in order to introduce an artificial semitone, affects, in general, only the note before which it is placed. 1806 J. W. Callcott Musical Gram. v. 55 Accidental Flats and Sharps only affect the Notes which they immediately precede. 1867 G. A. Macfarren Six Lect. Harmony i. 23 The employment in the minor of an accidental sharp or natural. 1917 Atlantic Educ. Jrnl. 128 A note which is not altered by the signature is raised..by an accidental sharp sign and lowered by an accidental flat sign. 1969 B. H. Bronson Ballad as Song xiv. 231 A punch could indicate which modal scale was being employed, and space could be saved for noting accidental sharps or flats. 1996 S. Youens Schubert's Poets (1999) iii. 225 The appearance on the page of a thicket of accidental flats followed by a thicket of accidental sharps and naturals tells the eye as well as the ear of metamorphosis. 4. Painting. Designating (the effects of) secondary or artificial light which falls on a subject, introduced esp. to create contrast. Now rare. ΚΠ 1612 H. Peacham Gentlemans Exercise i. x. 30 The first light I call that which proceedeth immediately from a lightned bodie, as the beames of the sunne. The second is an accidental light dispreading it selfe into the aire or medium, proceeding from the other. 1738 J. F. Fritsch tr. G. de Lairesse Art of Painting v. xviii. 239 This would, in my Opinion, have a fine Effect, especially if the said accidental Lights were mostly ordered in dark Places. 1796 C. Tomkins Tour Isle of Wight I. 134 Though I have seen a very splendid effect from an accidental light on a white object, yet I think it a hue, which hurts, oftener than it improves the scene. 1845 Dublin Univ. Mag. Dec. 676/1 Whether a composition..should borrow its effects from accidental light or repoussoir foregrounds, must be left to the decision of the academical professors. 1878 J. F. Clarke Memorial & Biogr. Sketches xvi. 331 Let there be no contrasts of color, no accidental lights, no long-reaching perspectives, no gradation of tints. 1908 New Eng. Mag. May 364/1 He looks for the natural color, the texture, the stains, the weathering, the accidental lights and shadows. 5. Physiology. Designating colour sensations that do not result from direct perception of a stimulus; esp. designating an after-image appearing in a complementary colour. Now rare. ΚΠ 1774 Monthly Rev. 51 534 The work is terminated by a memoir on the ‘Accidental Colours’ [Fr. couleurs accidentelles], first observed by the Author [sc. Buffon]. 1849 M. Somerville On Connexion Physical Sci. (ed. 8) §19. 184 After looking steadily for a short time at a coloured object, such as a red wafer, on turning the eyes to a white substance, a green image of the wafer appears, which is called the accidental colour of red. All tints have their accidental colours. 1873 E. Atkinson tr. A. Ganot Elem. Treat. Physics (ed. 6) vii. vi. 506 Accidental haloes are the colours which, instead of succeeding the impression of an object like accidental colours, appear round the object itself when it is looked at fixedly. 1998 N. Leland Exploring Color 13/1 We know about such phenomena as simultaneous contrast (the result of placing two colours side by side), successive contrast (the complementary afterimage that appears after an object is removed from view, accidental color (the consequence of injury, eye pressure or drug use) and color constancy (the accommodation of the eye for changes in illumination). II. Relating to or occurring by chance or occasionally. 6. a. That may occur from time to time as a result of chance; characterized by or relating to chance circumstances or to a chance occasion; occasional. ΘΚΠ the world > existence and causation > causation > chance or causelessness > [adjective] byc1050 casualc1374 fortuitc1374 fortunelc1374 fortunousc1374 causelessc1386 adventurousc1405 accidental1502 fortunable1509 happya1522 chanceable1549 occasional1569 accidentary1581 emergent1593 streave1598 contingent1604 happening1621 incidental1644 lucky1648 sporadical1654 temerarious1660 spontaneous1664 incidentarya1670 chance1676 antrin?1725 fortuitous1806 sporadic1821 windfall1845 chanced1853 blind1873 happenchance1905 happenstance1905 the world > existence and causation > causation > chance or causelessness > [adjective] > accidental or that is by chance accidentc1450 accidental1502 1502 tr. Ordynarye of Crysten Men (de Worde) v. vii. sig. ss.iii ^v The prayse of the good dedes done in the estate of mortall synne is a Ioye accydentale. 1541 T. Elyot Castel of Helthe (new ed.) 39 Some accidentall cause, as syckenes, or moche studye. a1616 W. Shakespeare Measure for Measure (1623) iii. i. 151 Oh fie, fie, fie: Thy sinn's not accidentall, but a Trade. 1675 J. Smith Horol. Dialogues 24 It might be some accidental injury in the conveiance from one place to another. 1712 J. Addison Spectator No. 414. ¶2 Those accidental Landskips of Trees, Clouds and Cities, that are sometimes found in the Veins of Marble. 1772 T. Pennant Tours Scotl. (1774) 341 Discovered by the accidental digging of peat. 1825 C. Waterton Wanderings in S. Amer. i. i. 109 The accidental traveller..can merely mark the outlines of the path he has trodden. 1858 T. Carlyle Hist. Friedrich II of Prussia I. i. iii. 40 Whiffs of jealousy..the product of accidental moodinesses in him. 1921 F. S. Mathews Field Bk. Wild Birds & their Music (rev. ed.) Introd. p. vii Several of the song-records, notably those of the Lincoln Sparrow..were quite accidental acquisitions. 2001 J. Nickell in H. Crafts Bondwoman's Narr. (2002) 292 Transmitted light shows the paper to be unwatermarked except for a type of ‘accidental watermark’ indicative of the papermaking process. b. Chiefly Ornithology. Of a bird or other animal: that occurs only rarely in a particular region, having wandered outside its normal area of distribution or migration; that is a vagrant (vagrant n. and adj. Additions 4). Cf. sense B. 5. ΘΚΠ the world > animals > by habits or actions > [adjective] > wandering waff1720 vagrant1743 accidental1821 1821 E. Sabine in W. E. Parry Jrnl. Voy. Discov. North-west Passage (ed. 2) App. X. p. cxcv As they..feed on mosquitoes and other winged insects, which are very rare in the North Georgian Islands, it is more than probable that the present individual was an accidental visitor, and had died from the want of food. 1851 J. E. Gray List Specimens Brit. Animals Brit. Mus.: Fish 119 Balistes Capriscus. Mediterranean File-Fish... Coast (accidental visitor). Sussex, Aug. 1827. 1892 Wilson Q. 4 32 Peucœa ruficeps eremœca. This rare south-western sub-species is recorded..as accidental at Decatur, Texas. 1907 J. C. Kershaw Butterflies Hongkong 9 Danais (Anosia) archippus... Merely an accidental visitor at present, occurring at long intervals. 1913 Wilson Bull. 25 44 Bay-breasted Warbler... A rare or accidental migrant. 1989 Nature Conservancy Mar. 11/1 Among the more than 300 species on the area's bird list are..accidental wanderers like oldsquaws and white-winged scoters. 1998 Colonial Waterbirds 21 89/1 The nominate race [of great blue heron] is considered an accidental visitor to the northern Venezuela mainland. 7. a. That happens by chance, unintentionally, or unexpectedly; occurring or produced by accident. Esp. in later use often contextually of mischance or mistake. (Now the predominant sense.) ΚΠ 1555 R. Eden in tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde Pref. sig. c.iii^v They may also herewith imbibe trewe religion as a thing accidental although neyther they nor we shulde seeke the same. 1578 T. Tymme tr. J. Calvin Comm. Genesis 84 As though all the crookedness of our disposition were not accidental. 1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 341 Accidentall diseases be those that come by chaunce, as by surfetting of cold, heat, and such like thing. 1653 I. Walton Compl. Angler i. 14 I made an accidental mention of it. View more context for this quotation 1710 J. Swift Tale of Tub (ed. 5) Apol. sig. a1 The accidental encountring of a single Thought. a1774 A. Tucker Light of Nature Pursued (1777) III. i. 230 A man shoots at a rat in his yard, and kills a chicken which he did not intend, therefore we call this accidental. 1830 C. Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 256 They are causes, therefore, as constant as the tides themselves, and, like them, depend on no temporary or accidental circumstances. 1884 Cent. Mag. Dec. 261/2 With a self-closing faucet for drawing water, there need be provided for the protection of the ceiling below only such simple means of outlet..as will carry the slight drip that may come from an accidental leak. 1914 I. Shone Evol. Greater Britain's Sewage-drainage Syst. 198 A simple arrangement..to prevent..pressure being produced in the sewers by any accidental restriction of the airway. 1967 Canad. Med. Assoc. Jrnl. 29 July 227/1 Weight is not a problem in a therapeutic hyperbaric chamber, and this allows the use of many safeguards against accidental fire. 2005 J. Martyn Ringfort to Runway ii. v. 162 It's obvious that Scully, Hickey, O'Sullivan, Ellison and Doyle go back a bit. Theirs was no accidental meeting prior to McCarthy's Fly-In. b. Chiefly Law. Of a death: caused by an unexpected or chance incident; occurring as the unintended consequence of an action. Frequently in accidental death.In legal contexts distinguished as a cause of death from natural causes (old age or disease), homicide, and suicide. In the United Kingdom, also termed death by misadventure (see misadventure n. 2). ΚΠ 1640 T. Nabbes Unfortunate Mother v. sig. H4^v I will stand up and Justifie my actions. First for the death of your unlawfull brothers Twas accidentall, not by me determin'd. 1649 S. Rutherford Free Disputation xxv. 329 I see not how the Magistrate is not to judge according to the word of God, what is wilfull murder, and so deserveth death, by the Law of God, what is accidentall killing and deserveth no death, but a Refuge and Maneprize. 1707 W. Forbes Duty & Powers Justices of Peace Scotl. i. 11 A Coroner gets nothing for inquiring about any accidental Death. 1755 Gentleman's Mag. May 232/2 The inquest..brought in their verdict accidental death by an ox, and found the ox a deodand. 1839 Law Mag. 22 25 The question, whether for want of due caution, a party were to be considered guilty of manslaughter, or the death was merely accidental, has also been regarded as a question of law. 1882 Pall Mall Gaz. 10 May 3/1 The jury..deciding after some hesitation to find only accidental death. 1922 Daily Mail 11 Nov. 7 Army Officer Gassed in his Bath... Accidental Death, the result of poisoning by a gas escape from a geyser. 1993 Esquire Nov. 86/2 Lawyers defending insurance companies in suicide cases—cases, that is, in which families are suing to collect premiums, claiming accidental death—have to wrestle with a legal bear called ‘presumption against suicide’. 2007 W. M. Dale & W. S. Becker Crime Scene 96 The cause of death was determined to be acute cocaine intoxication and the death was ruled accidental. B. n. 1. a. Something non-essential, subsidiary, or incidental; a secondary feature. Cf. senses A. 1, A. 2. ΘΚΠ the world > existence and causation > existence > extrinsicality or externality > [noun] > non-essentialness > that which is non-essential or accident accidentala1398 adventionc1475 accident1491 circumstance1599 under-accident1632 contingential1647 modality1647 adventitial1652 extrinsical1652 adventition1661 ornamental1774 inessential1778 non-essential1806 a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 130 In philosophris hit is seide þat forma wiþ matere is cause of all accidentales. c1443 R. Pecock Reule of Crysten Religioun (1927) 495 (MED) Þe kynde and þe nature of oure lijf here..is lijk to þe kynde and þe nature of oure lijf which we schule haue in heuene þere, þouȝ al þer be difference in accidentals. 1577 T. Vautrollier tr. M. Luther Comm. Epist. to Galathians (new ed.) f. 185 It is not the proper office of Christ..to teach the law, but an accidentall or a byoffice. 1629 H. Burton Babel No Bethel 15 He makes soundnes..to be the accidental to a true Church. 1678 V. Alsop Melius Inquirendum ii. v. 235 To call them [sc. Christ's institutions] the Circumstantials, the Accidentals, the minutes, the Punctilio's, and, if need be, the Petty-Johns of Religion. 1726 J. Ayliffe Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani 75 Altho' a Custom introduc'd against the Substantials of an Appeal be not valid..yet a Custom may be introduc'd against the Accidentals of an Appeal. 1791 G. F. A. Wendeborn View Eng. II. ii. 389 Times, circumstances, and situations, produce changes, though not in what relates to the essentials of religion, yet in matters relative to externals and accidentals. 1824 Friend of India Feb. 37 That error which is but too common among mortals, to take accidentals for essentials. 1874 St. Louis Med. & Surg. Jrnl. 31 85 Another example of an accidental is found in oedema occasionally occurring in eczema. 1921 E. Walker in F. S. Marvin Recent Devel. European Thought xi. 286 During the last generation an advance in material complexity is obvious, even though the complexity may often enough be one of accidentals rather than essentials. 2008 R. Sokolowski Phenomenol. of Human Person ii. vii. 104 What is dangerous and misleading is the unselfconscious confusion of accidentals with essentials. b. Textual Criticism. Any scribal or typographical feature of a text that is not essential to the author's meaning. Cf. accident n. 1b. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > the arts > literature > style of language or writing > copiousness > [noun] > action of padding > matter used as padding > matter not essential to author's meaning accident1942 accidental1942 1942 W. W. Greg Editorial Probl. Shakespeare p. liv It is desirable that the preservation of accidentals should be seen in proper perspective. 1959 Notes & Queries 204 119/2 If no long s was available in his fount, it would surely have been better to have substituted the modern s for this ‘accidental’ of early script and typography. 1964 Notes & Queries 209 179/1 Such variants as & for and throughout suggest that Fischer is more faithful than Clark to accidentals. 1997 Ambix 44 99 In the matter of accidentals the editor tells us that he has normalized archaic i/j and u/v alternatives on modern practice. 2. Music. A sharp, flat, or natural sign placed (in modern practice) before a note to mark it as accidental (see sense A. 3); (also) a note marked in this way. ΘΚΠ society > leisure > the arts > music > written or printed music > notation > [noun] > signs altering pitch bemol1609 sharp1653 B sharp1654 natural1724 accidental1868 flat1872 cancel1912 1796 A. F. C. Kollmann Ess. Musical Harmony xiv. 112 The same strict reversion can also be obtained in major as well as minor, though the key note or its octave be made the fixed note, when accidentals are used in the reversion. 1829 J. F. Burrowes Piano-forte Primer (new ed.) x. 50 Why are the Sixth and Seventh Notes of the Ascending Minor Scale raised by Accidentals? 1868 F. A. G. Ouseley Treat. Harmony (1875) i. 6 The use of them [sc. sharps, flats, etc.] both as accidentals and in the signature. 1917 Atlantic Educ. Jrnl. 128 When a note which is sharped or flatted in the signature is changed in the scale it is done by a natural or cancel sign written as an accidental. 1991 J. Caldwell Oxf. Hist. Eng. Music I. iii. 152 The Brussels Mass..is remarkably bold in its melodic floridity and the free use of accidentals. 3. Painting. The effect created by secondary or artificial light falling on a subject, introduced esp. to create contrast. Now rare. ΚΠ 1824 J. Elmes Gen. Dict. Fine Arts (at cited word) Accidentals or accidents in art are various; in painting accidental lights are those fortuitous effects which, occasioned by rays of light falling casually on certain objects, render them more bright and luminous than usual, and produce a strong and marked opposition to the shadows, which are rendered apparently still darker by contrast. 1852 G. Ripley & B. Taylor Hand-bk. Lit. & Fine Arts I. 5/2 There are some fine instances of accidentals in Raphael's Transfiguration, and particularly in the celebrated picture, the Notte of Coreggio, in which the light emanates from the infant Christ. 1938 C. Muncaster Student's Bk. Water-colour Painting vi. 43 Since accidentals in reflections are much more concrete than in skies, the call for wet treatment is much less. 4. With the. That which happens by chance. Cf. senses A. 6a, A. 7a. ΘΚΠ the world > existence and causation > causation > chance or causelessness > [noun] > chance or fortuitous circumstance hazard1340 accidencea1393 a venture's strokec1450 chance1487 contingent1548 circumstance1599 lotterya1616 accidency1645 by-accident1648 frisk1665 accidentala1834 a1834 S. T. Coleridge Lit. Remains (1836) II. 187 The accidental is no where the groundwork of the passions, but that which is catholic, which in all ages has been, and ever will be, close and native to the heart of man. 1882 Tract Mag. 13 116 There is more than the accidental in each case. In both God is honoured, and the best interests of mankind are promoted. 1931 Observer 17 May 17/7 The physicist may arrive at the paradoxal conclusion that the accidental is the root of causality. 1955 Bull. Atomic Scientists Apr. 108/2 The freedom of science is so important to its progress just because it allows the accidental to occur. 2009 J. M. Barker Tactile Eye i. 32 The connection between contact and contingency..is worth mentioning because quite often, the touch of film and viewer across one another's skins has a quality of the accidental. 5. Chiefly Ornithology. An accidental bird or other animal; = vagrant n. and adj. Additions 4. ΘΚΠ the world > animals > birds > actions or bird defined by > [noun] > migration > that is found outside normal area of migration accidental1878 vagrant1920 1878 Bull. Nuttall Ornithol. Club 3 92 Whether P. pictus is an accidental or a regular winter visitor in Texas, I am unable to state. 1914 Condor 16 97 The long list of accidentals, second only to the transients in numbers, is probably one result of the host of observers enlisted in furtherance of the work. 1952 J. Fisher Fulmar xiii. 303 There is a March fulmar record from the coast of Maine, clearly an ‘accidental’. 2005 Wilson Bull. 117 424/1 372 bird species (17 orders and 58 families) have been recorded in Azerbaijan; they comprise 107 permanent residents, 139 summer residents, 95 migrants and winter residents, 28 accidentals, and 3 extirpated species. C. adv. colloquial. By chance, accidentally. ΘΚΠ the world > existence and causation > causation > chance or causelessness > [adverb] feringc1000 feringlya1300 by casec1300 chancefully1303 lotc1325 peradventurec1325 of chance1330 happilya1375 in hapa1375 upon hapsa1375 casuallyc1384 perchancec1387 chancely1389 by fortune1390 haplyc1390 by (also of) adventurea1393 percasea1393 adventurelyc1400 percase1402 accidently?a1425 adventurously1440 by (good, lucky, etc.) hap?a1450 accidentally1528 chanceably1559 bechance1569 chance1595 casual-wise1601 accidental1622 occasionally1622 fortuitouslya1652 contingently1668 by chance1669 chanceable1709 per-hazard1788 chance-wise1844 1622 S. Rowlands Good Newes & Bad Newes sig. B4 Two canting rogues, that old consorts had bin, Did accidentall at an alehouse meet. 1862 Once a Week 1 Nov. 521/1 They had not met ‘accidental’, and the topic of conversation had not been Robin's work. 1914 Harper's Mag. Feb. 386/1 The next day I happened accidental, more or less, by the Waters' shack. 1998 D. di Prima Dinners & Nightmares 107 I'll call your name wrong and you'll think it happened accidental. Compounds accidental point n. (also †point accidental) [after French point accidental (1663 in the passage translated in quot. 1672)] Perspective a point at which a number of parallel lines appear to meet which are not perpendicular to the picture plane; cf. vanishing point at vanishing n. 2; also figurative. ΚΠ 1672 R. Pricke tr. J. Dubreuil Perspective Pract. 12 Points Contingent or Accidental [Fr. Points Accidentaux], Are certain Points where the Objects do end, which may be cast negligently, and without order, under the Plane. 1782 European Mag. & London Rev. Aug. 91/1 The breadth of all, and altitude of one of the windows, door, &c. may be set off by the instrument, all others of the same range will tend to the same accidental point K. 1874 K. N. Doggett tr. C. Blanc Gram. Painting & Engraving i. viii. 54 He must also take account of the numerous exceptions certain objects may present, which have no regular relation to the picture..and whose horizontal lines will terminate at an accidental point placed upon the horizon. 1955 Western Polit. Q. 8 402 It has scattered white crosses at our most dangerous political intersection - the accidental point of coincidence of opinion with the line of the Communist party, however wide the angle of intersection. 2003 A. Paoluzzi Geom. Programming for Computer-aided Design ii. x. 372 The perspective has only one accidental point, also called a vanishing point. This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2011; most recently modified version published online June 2022). < adj.n.adv.1387
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