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I almost never hear anyone say'on accident' but If I had to guess, it comes from taking sort of a parallel antonym to 'on purpose'. Did you do it 'on purpose'?

by frankc 11y ago

I almost never hear anyone say'on accident' but If I had to guess, it comes from taking sort of a parallel antonym to 'on purpose'. Did you do it 'on purpose'? No, I did it 'on accident'. It sounds weird to my ears but there is some kind of sense to it.

mirimir 11y ago
Maybe. But if I follow that path, I get "accidentally" vs "purposefully". The first is about how it went down, but the second is about how it was carried out. The opposite of "purposefully" is "carelessly" or "recklessly", no?