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(logic)Synonym of accident(“a property, fact, or relation that is the result of chance or is nonessential or nonsubstantive”)
1886, Prasanna K. Roy, A Text-book of Deductive Logic: For the Use of Students, page 83:
An Accidens (or accident) of an individual, genus, or species is any attribute which is possessed by it, and which does not follow from, or form a part of, its comprehension. […] If, on the other hand, an accidens is sometimes present and sometimes absent in an individual, […]
1896, James Welton, A Manual of Logic, volume 1, page 86:
But, where there is no apparent reason why the attribute should always be found in the individuals of a class, it is called an Accidens.
Related terms
accidens
Latin
Etymology 1
Present active participle of accidō(“fall down or upon; happen”).
1695, Teutsch-Lateinisches WörterBüchlein Zum Nutz und Ergötzung der Schuljugend zusammengetragen, Und mit 6000. darzu dienlichen Bildern gezieret. Deme noch über das eine kurtzgefaste Lateinische Sprach-Übung Und Zimliche Anzahl Auserlesener Sprüche beygefüget. — Dictionariolum germanico-latinum In Usum & delectationem Scholasticae Juventutis concinnatum, & aliquot millibus huic rei inservientibus Iconibus illustratum. Cui insuper accessit, Epitome Grammatices Latinae cum selectarum Sententiarum Farragine., Nuremberg (Nürnberg, Noriberga), p.197: