• 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”.

          • Victor@lemmy.world
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            22 hours ago

            You… don’t need to be able to in order to follow along here. I provided an image as well. 👍

              • Victor@lemmy.world
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                19 hours ago

                Alright, mate.

                Then I don’t understand what you’re argument is. You know the connotation people have, you know the origins of the word… 🤷‍♂️

                • petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                  18 hours ago

                  Uh, my argument is that my eyes see no devils yonder. If you’d like to know why, I guess, have a look at 1-a.

                  I should have pulled up a dictionary to begin with, honestly. I just thought I was arguing from a more colloquial standpoint. Which I would still defend; I love slang.

                  • Victor@lemmy.world
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                    15 hours ago

                    Are we ignoring 1-b?

                    happening without intent or through carelessness and often with unfortunate results

                    🤷‍♂️