2030-04-06 ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด I – Incidence & incidents & instance
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Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง Incidence = ‘IN-si-duhns’
ออกเสียง incidents = ‘IN-si-duhnt’
ออกเสียง instance = ‘IN-stuhns’
Abused, Confused, & Misused Words by Mary Embree
incidence
the rate or range of occurrence or influence of something:
There is a high incidence of lung cancer in people who smoke.
Not to be confused with:
incidents – individual events;
a distinct bit of action; occurrences:
There were several disturbing incidents during the peace march.
Abused, Confused, & Misused Words by Mary Embree
instance
an occurrence of something; an example:
The fistfight was an instance of student discord.
Not to be confused with:
instants – very brief time periods;
almost imperceptible moments:
We experience only instants of pure joy.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language,
incidence
Usage Note:
The singular noun incidence
usually refers to the rate at which something happens,
as in
The city has taken measures to reduce the incidence of vandalism.
In this sense, it is used in the plural only
in relatively rare situations
when several rates are being discussed
(for example, incidences of heart disease, cancer, and stroke).
However, incidence is often confused with
the similar-sounding words
incident and instance,
which refer not to a rate but to a discrete event
and are pluralized as incidents
(which sounds exactly like incidence)
and instances (which has an ending similar to incidences).
This confusion often leads people
to use incidences as a plural referring to a number of events,
as in
the sentence Incidences of religious intolerance are on the rise, creating tensions within many communities.
In our 2014 Usage Survey, 74 percent of Panelists
found this sentence unacceptable,
and many Panelists remarked that
incidences should be replaced with incidents or instances.
The same sentence was unacceptable
to 67 percent of Panelists in 2002,
suggesting that there has been no increase
in acceptability of this usage.
A few Panelists remarked that
this sentence might be acceptable
if it were referring to rates of vandalism
in several different places.
A less ambiguous sentence
(The election was marred by a few violent incidences)
was rejected by 80 percent of the Panel.
In this sentence, incidents is the better choice.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Choose the Right Synonym for incident
Noun
OCCURRENCE, EVENT, INCIDENT, EPISODE, CIRCUMSTANCE
mean something that happens or takes place.
OCCURRENCE may apply to a happening without intent, volition, or plan.
an encounter that was a chance occurrence
EVENT usually implies an occurrence of some
importance and frequently one having antecedent cause.
the events following the assassination
INCIDENT suggests an occurrence of brief duration
or secondary importance.
a minor wartime incident
EPISODE stresses the distinctiveness
or apartness of an incident.
a brief romantic episode in a life devoted to work
CIRCUMSTANCE implies a specific detail
attending an action or event
as part of its setting or background.
couldn't recall the exact circumstances
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Choose the Right Synonym for instance
Noun
mean something that exhibits
distinguishing characteristics in its category.
INSTANCE applies to any individual person, act, or thing
that may be offered to illustrate or explain.
an instance of history repeating itself
CASE is used to direct attention to a real
or assumed occurrence or situation
that is to be considered, studied, or dealt with.
a case of mistaken identity
ILLUSTRATION applies to an instance offered as
a means of clarifying or illuminating a general statement.
a telling illustration of Murphy's Law
EXAMPLE applies to a typical, representative,
or illustrative instance or case.
a typical example of bureaucratic waste
SAMPLE implies a part or unit taken at random
from a larger whole and so presumed
to be typical of its qualities.
show us a sample of your work
SPECIMEN applies to any example or
sample whether representative or
merely existent and available.
one of the finest specimens of the jeweler's art
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Did You Know?
The words incident, incidence, and instance
may seem similar
(and, in fact, incident and incidence are closely related),
but they are not used identically.
In current use,
incidence usually means "rate of occurrence"
and is often qualified in some way
("a high incidence of diabetes").
Incident usually refers to a particular event,
often something unusual or unpleasant
("many such incidents go unreported").
Instance suggests a particular occurrence
that is offered as an example
("another instance of bureaucratic bumbling");
it can also be synonymous with case
("many instances in which the wrong form was submitted").
The plural incidences sometimes occurs
in such contexts as "several recent incidences of crime,"
but this use is often criticized as incorrect.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Usage Notes
'Accidental' vs. 'Incidental'
A word's meaning is no accident. Or is it?
What to Know
Accidental and incidental can both mean
"something happening by chance,"
but usage suggests that
"accidental" also implies
an element of carelessness or inattention
while "incidental" implies
the occurrence would have happened with
or without attention or care.
The words accident and incident are
often confused, and for good reason.
They have intersecting histories,
both stemming from
the same ultimate Latin root, cadere, meaning “to fall,"
and their Latin antecedents had similar meanings:
accidere meant, among other things,
“to fall down” and “to happen” and
incidere meant “to fall into” and (also)
“to happen.” Plus, they kind of sound alike.
Shared Origins of Accidental and Incidental
Both accident and incident were
formed from the present participles of the Latin verbs
(they could be roughly translated
as “accidenting” and “incidenting”),
which became nouns in French
before crossing into English in the 14th century.
The Germanic equivalent to “accidenting” would be befalling,
which gives us some perspective on
how to understand the original meaning of accident:
the verb befall is defined as “to happen especially as if by fate,”
and the obsolete noun befall is
defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as
“a case, circumstance, incident, accident.”
The oldest meanings of accident are
“a chance event” or “something
that was unforeseen and unplanned”
—which could also be described as “a happening” or “a befalling.”
Accident and incident share the idea
of a sudden and unpleasant occurrence,
the former usually referring directly to
something that causes damage or injury,
the latter referring to a specific moment
or instance of unpleasantness or unlawfulness:
a traffic accident
isolated incidents were reported
Separate Meanings
The words next go their separate ways.
Incident becomes more abstract in the language of diplomacy,
referring to something likely to have diplomatic consequences:
a border incident
Accident has a distinct abstract sense
referring to any fortuitous or
nonessential property, fact, or circumstance:
an accident of birth
Among its more concrete set of meanings
is the all-too-concrete euphemistic use
when referring to the acts of babies and pets:
The puppy had an accident on the floor.
Subtle Differences
Their related adjectives pretty much stay in their lanes:
accidental refers to something happening by chance (chance another word that descends from cadere),
but also sometimes implying inattention or carelessness:
an accidental discovery
the timing was accidental
an accidental fire
Incidental means “minor” or,
when it means “by chance” or
“without intention or calculation,”
the idea of carelessness is absent.
(Incident is also sometimes used as
an adjective in technical or legal contexts.)
incidental expenses
played an incidental role
an incidental finding
Language sometimes evolves in
unpredictable and illogical ways.
The parallel noun forms incidence and accidence
have very imbalanced comparative usage,
with incidence a fairly common word
meaning “an occurrence or rate of occurrence”
(as in “a high incidence of crime”)
and accidence a rare one,
referring only to “a part of grammar that deals with inflections.”
So it might be said that all those irregular verb tenses
that require memorization when studying a new language
are the “unforeseen or unplanned” changes in a language's course
—accidents along the way in the history of a language.
Common Errors in English Usage Dictionary
INCIDENCE & INCIDENTS & INSTANCES
These three overlap in meaning
just enough to confuse a lot of people.
Few of us have a need for “incidence,”
which most often
refers to degree or extent of the occurrence of something
(“the incidence of measles in Whitman County
has dropped markedly since the vaccine has been provided free”).
“Incidents,” which is pronounced identically,
is merely the plural of “incident,” meaning “occurrences”
(“police reported damage to three different outhouses
in separate incidents last Halloween”).
Instances are examples
(“semicolons are not required
in the first three instances given in your query”).
Incidents can be used as instances
only if someone is using them as examples.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language
incidence
Usage Note:
The singular noun incidence usually
refers to the rate at which something happens,
as in
The city has taken measures to reduce the incidence of vandalism.
In this sense, it is used in the plural
only in relatively rare situations
when several rates are being discussed
(for example,
incidences of heart disease, cancer, and stroke).
However, incidence is often confused
with the similar-sounding words incident and instance,
which refer not to a rate but to a discrete event
and are pluralized as incidents
(which sounds exactly like incidence)
and instances (which has an ending similar to incidences).
This confusion often leads people
to use incidences as a plural referring to a number of events,
as in
the sentence Incidences of religious intolerance
are on the rise, creating tensions within many communities.
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