So it was my understanding that you could have one incident, or several incidents, but 'incidence' refers to a rate of occurrence, so it would be rare to need to pluralize it.
So I _was_ going to rant about how often I hear people say 'incidences' ... but then I looked it up online, and dictionary.com lists one meaning of 'incidence' as the same as incident. Is this correct? Or do they just have it listed because so many people get it wrong that it's becoming accepted?
So I _was_ going to rant about how often I hear people say 'incidences' ... but then I looked it up online, and dictionary.com lists one meaning of 'incidence' as the same as incident. Is this correct? Or do they just have it listed because so many people get it wrong that it's becoming accepted?
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California
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Re: incidence of incidents in which someone says incidences
Tue, April 8, 2008 - 11:54 AMWithout looking up any references, I'll share what I think I know. Incident is one occurrence, incidents are several occurrences and incidence is a measure how often a specific type of incident occurs.
For example...
There was an incident of cheating in the biology class.
There were eight incidents of cheating during final exams on thecampus.
The incidence of cheating on exams is rising among college students in recent years.
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Re: incidence of incidents in which someone says incidences
Tue, April 8, 2008 - 11:56 AMOops, I just read the first paragraph of your post again and realized that I said basically the same thing. Well, it looks like we agree on the terms. Perhaps your reference simply lists similar words, rather than analyzing the nuance that distinguish the words and their uses.
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Re: incidence of incidents in which someone says incidences
Tue, April 8, 2008 - 6:21 PMStephanie, I knew that this topic had a familiar ring to it, so I search this tribe, and it came up briefly two years ago: lexitist.tribe.net/thread/a...60c55d83d . Of course, the only person who responded to it at that time decided that "instances" was the word he should've used, perhaps to avoid the entire sticky situation. I agree with you, and Heather too, but I don't know the answer to your etymological question. Sorry! -
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Re: incidence of incidents in which someone says incidences
Sun, April 13, 2008 - 11:03 PMMerriam Webster seems to agree w/ dictionary.com . . . indeed, the synonym of "occurrence" seems to be the preferred definition. Wacky!
Main Entry: in·ci·dence
Pronunciation: \ˈin(t)-sə-dən(t)s, -ˌden(t)s\
Function: noun
Date: 1626
1 a: angle of incidence b: the arrival of something (as a projectile or a ray of light) at a surface
2 a: an act or the fact or manner of falling upon or affecting : occurrence
b: rate of occurrence or influence <a high incidence of crime> -
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Re: incidence of incidents in which someone says incidences
Mon, April 14, 2008 - 5:26 AMOut of curiosity, I went to dictionary.com to see just what was there. The first two definitions of incidence include entries that make incidence a synonym of occurrence. The two listings come from Random House and American Heritage Dictionary, and both were 2006 publishing dates. Further down the list are references from 2002 and earlier, including Merriam Webster, none of which provide for the use of incidence as a single incident.
How curious!
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