• Victor@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Right. When someone is accused of something, and they say “But it was an accident!”, that’s exactly what it means.

      But if you shit yourself and say “I had an accident.”, that’s not what it means. Or you call your parents and say, “I was in an accident.”

      It has different connotations and in this case I’m conflicted, and therefore I would’ve chosen a different word.

      • petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 days ago

        I’m not reading any negative connotation at all.

        For what it’s worth, those examples for ‘accident’ are being used as euphemisms to soften the blow of the intended message, and you can’t soften the blow without using soft words.

        Car accidents have noun-ified the word a bit, though, so I do see where you’re coming from.

        • Victor@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Surely “car accidents” aren’t the only way it’s been “noun-ified”?

          Even the Latin form would mean “misfortune”.