Could anyone explain the meaning of Incident?
Thanks,
***** NOT A TEACHER *****
Hello, Hitinvo.
(1) Yes, this word is very confusing.
(2) I checked my books and here are a few ideas:
(a) "Incident" usually has a negative (bad) meaning.
(b) It is a minor (little) event or happening.
(c) But today many native speakers use it as a "euphemism."
(i) A euphemism is a "nice" word for something that makes
people angry, or scared, or sad, etc.
(a) For example, we do not like to say that someone "died." So
we say that someone "passed away" or "slept away." It sounds
more gentle than "died" -- a word that scares us.
(d) Let's say that there is a nuclear bomb accident. Maybe the
newspapers do not want to scare the people, so they will just
say that "there has been a nuclear incident." The word "incident"
gives the idea that the nuclear bomb accident was not important.
(e) Most dictionaries seem to agree that an "incident" is:
a minor (little) event (happening) that is violent, or unpleasant or
dangerous.
But nowadays the media (newspapers, TV, etc.) use the
word "incident" because they want to say: Don't worry! What happened
was not super important. They do not always use the true words.
(1) Recently country X supposedly sank a ship belonging to country Y.
Some newspapers did not want to scare the people and did not want to
help start a war. So they did not use words like "attack"
or "aggression." They just reported that there was a "naval incident."
(f) When there is a big accident and many people die, it is
not honest to call it only an "incident" because to many native
speakers the word means that what happened was not very important.
(g) If five people throw rocks at the police, maybe that is an "incident."
But if 1,000 people threw rocks, that would be a riot. Yet some people
are afraid to use that word because they do not want to scare people or
maybe hurt somebody's feelings. So they use the word "incident."
(h) Let's say that some bad guys with guns rob you and hit you and hurt
you. That is very serious. The law calls that armed robbery and assault.
Those bad guys deserve many years in jail. When you get home, your
family members say, "What happened?" You do not want them to
worry about you. So you say, "Oh, nothing. There was just a little
incident on the way home." Of course, you are telling a lie. It was more
than an "incident," but sometimes we use the word "incident" because
we do not want others to worry or maybe because we are embarrassed
for other people to know the truth.
(3) If you have more questions about this word, please post them.
***** Thank you *****