Other forms: incidents
An incident is an event, especially an unpleasant or violent one. A minor incident, the incident was reported, without incident.
It is the official word for something that went wrong, chosen precisely because it says nothing about how serious or whose fault — an incident report starts neutral. Without incident means nothing happened, which is high praise in aviation and policing. Note that the Latin means falling upon.
1nounincidentAn event, especially an unpleasant one.
“The police are investigating an incident outside the nightclub last night.”
incident is an event.
Latin incidens comes from incidere, to fall upon — in plus cadere, to fall. Accident and cadence come from the same falling.
Proto-Indo-European
*ḱh₂d-
Latin
incidens
Middle French
incident
English, today
incident
Built from
Recorded since 1412, from Middle French incident, from Latin incidens, the present active participle of incidō (“to happen, befall”), itself from in- (“on”) + -cidō, the combining form of cadō (“to fall”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA