This morning, I heard a local TV news reporter use the word “incidences” (twice in one sentence, so it wasn’t a mistake) when I believe what he really wanted was “incidents”.
Which got me to thinking: “incidence” is definitely a word; and it’s a noun, so it has a plural. But in what context would you ever say “incidences”?
Maybe “the incidences of cancer and heart disease both have risen in the last decade”, signifying that they are separate rates rising independently.
OK, good example. If I was editing that copy, though, I’d cross it out and replace it with “rates”, “cases”, or “occurrences”, though.
Another similar questionable usage: In an English version of an Asterix book, I saw the statement: “Accidence will happen.”
Is this a typical usage? In American English at least, it would certainly be “Accidents will happen.” Is “accidence” used this way in British English or elsewhere?
If he meant occurrences, I think he probably wanted “instances.”
I’ve never heard it myself, but for relatively small country there’s a very wide variation in English terms.
As for ‘incidences’, it’s a word I’ve heard often, never seemed out of place.
I associate it with Police spokesmen, it’s hard to define, but personally I’d put it between ‘incidents’ and ‘occurrences’.
Language is defined by usage, dictionaries report on that usage.
According to the OED, “accidence” meaning chance, or mishap, is rare or obscure. In the example given, I’d say it’s a typo.
I’m not buying that “incidences” is being used properly, but (god forbid) you might be right that it will become accepted.
No, the standard saying is “Accidents will happen,” in Britain too. It may be a typo. However, the Asterix books are full of puns and other wordplay (both in the original French and the English translations), so it would not surprise me if this is a deliberate joke of some sort. Without context it is impossible to tell for sure.
Re: “Accidence will happen” as seen in an Asterix book in English: It certainly can’t have been a “typo”, as in “typographical error”, as this is a comic book with hand-lettered text. The translators certainly appear to be some flavor of British, as the English is noticeably British English of some sort, and certainly not American English. The context was, Asterix and Obelix had just beaten a Roman garrison to a bloody pulp, and the statement “Accidence will happen” was a sarcastic comment on the wrecked condition of the Roman legionaries.
ETA: It’s interesting to compare the French and English versions. Puns tend to not translate well, and the translators freely invent all-new puns in every language, altering the surrounding text and dialog as needed. I noted one “incidence” (in Asterix The Legionary, IIRC) in which they had re-written an entire page of text and dialog to support the English puns.