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> Why an "incident"? the situation described by the article doesn't seem at all to be an incident, but rather normal and ok In colloquial use, "incident" has r
by neallindsay 2y ago
> Why an "incident"? the situation described by the article doesn't seem at all to be an incident, but rather normal and ok
In colloquial use, "incident" has recently taken on a negative connotation because people don't generally use it except to refer to situations they would rather not elaborate upon. But in the slightly-formal language of newspaper writing it is frequently used to refer to the event that the article is talking about without repeating themselves. In this context it is neutral and has no negative connotation.
- jeltz 2y ago> Euphemistic meaning "event that might trigger a crisis or political unrest" first attested 1913. Recently? That use has been attested since at least 1913.
- neallindsay 2y agoFair point—that's older than I thought, but newspaper writing still uses the word in its non-euphemistic sense.