incident

Meanings

Noun

• An event or occurrence.
• A (relatively minor) event that is incidental to, or related to others.
• An event that causes or may cause an interruption or a crisis, such as a workplace illness or a software error.

Adjective

• Arising as the result of an event, inherent.
• Falling on or striking a surface.
• Coming or happening accidentally; not in the usual course of things; not in connection with the main design; not according to expectation; casual; fortuitous.
• Liable to happen; apt to occur; befalling; hence, naturally happening or appertaining.
• Dependent upon, or appertaining to, another thing, called the principal.

Origin

• Recorded since 1412, from Middle French incident, from Latin incidens, the present active participle of incidō, itself from in- + -cidō, the combining form of cadō.