It's all about reading. e.g "near dead" means "I was almost, but not quite dead." Therefore "near miss" could be read as "close to, but not quite a miss" and i

It's all about reading. e.g "near dead" means "I was almost, but not quite dead." Therefore "near miss" could be read as "close to, but not quite a miss" and it would be more accurate to say a "near hit" meaning "close to, but not quite a hit". In this context, a "near miss" is a collision - that almost didn't happen and a "near hit" would be a collision that almost happened but didn't. Edit: If trying to collide, it would be appropriate to call a collision that almost didn't happen a "near miss".