Word of the day: misnomer

Misnomer I = "incident"
Today's post is about best word usage. The definition of misnomer is in the title link above, by the way. Words are very important to good writing and reporting. Journalists need to use the most effective terminology when reporting news.

There are a couple of terms that have often been misused to categorize events. Those words are incident (today's post - I) and friendly fire (tomorrow's post - II).

The story that got me to thinking about this comes from CNN. What struck me was how inadequately the wording conveyed the horrible nature of the tragedy. I know it is perhaps standard practice to use the word "incident" in such a story. But, to my mind, that tends to minimize the nature of what actually happened. This is the headline:
"NATO: 1 dead in Afghan 'friendly fire' incident". To quote from the article,

POSTED: 2:36 a.m. EDT, September 4, 2006
(CNN) -- A friendly fire incident in southern Afghanistan on Monday "resulted in one ISAF death and multiple casualties," NATO's International Security Assistance Force said.
The incident took place around 5:30 a.m. local time (0100 GMT) during Operation
Medusa, a three-day-old offensive against the Taliban in Kandahar province. ISAF troops had been fighting Taliban insurgents in Kandahar's Panjwayi district.
"ISAF troops called for, and received, close air support. Two ISAF aircraft provided the support but regrettably engaged friendly forces during a strafing run, using
cannons."
An investigation has been ordered into the incident.

Here is how I would edit the author's words. The headline would call it a "mistaken target accident." The first sentence would read "IASF aircraft accidentally fired on their own forces in Southern Afghanistan on Monday. NATO's International Security Force said it resulting in one death and multiple casualties. The tragedy took place arund 5:30 local time . . . An investigation has been ordered into the unfortunate episode."

The term incident has been applied incorrectly to all sorts of very different events. Those occurrences include: a massacre in Kosovo that sparked a war; computer events needing technical support; child abduction stories or persons gone missing; something necessitating a HAZMAT report, such as oil or chemical spills; health or safety breaches in business; security breaches; reports to police, fire or emergency systems; Dick Cheney's hunting accident; the Roswell NM UFO story, and the story of Janet Jackson's bared breast.

Incident has a tremendous range of disparate meanings, as the list illustrates. Let us begin with what the word means. Dictionary.com defines incident as –

a noun, with the following meanings:

1. an individual occurrence or event.
2. a distinct piece of action, or an episode, as in a story or play.
3. something that occurs casually in connection with something else.
4. something appertaining or attaching to something else.
5. an occurrence of seemingly minor importance, esp. involving nations or factions between which relations are strained and sensitive, that can lead to serious consequences, as an outbreak of hostilities or a war: border incident; international incident.
6. an embarrassing occurrence, esp. of a social nature. –adjective
7. likely or apt to happen (usually fol. by to).
8. naturally appertaining: hardships incident to the life of an explorer.
9. conjoined or attaching, esp. as subordinate to a principal thing.
10. falling or striking on something, as light rays.

To me, "incident" diminishes the seriousness of an event. That is perhaps because of its similarity to incidental, which has the different meaning that sticks with me:

incidental –adjective
1. happening or likely to happen in an unplanned or subordinate conjunction with something else.
2. incurred casually and in addition to the regular or main amount: incidental expenses.
3. likely to happen or naturally appertaining (usually fol. by to). –noun
4. something incidental, as a circumstance.
5. incidentals, minor expenses.
—Synonyms 1. casual, chance, fortuitous; contingent.
—Antonyms 1. fundamental.

Ambiguity - To help clear up the confusion Wikipedia included the definition as a "disambiguation page". To quote,

An incident is an occurrence or event.
For the usages in mathematics, . . .
The word is also used in business management, software testing

The key conceptual differences center on intentionality. Did the event happen accidentally? Was it done on purpose? Did it happen out of neglect or ignorance? Was it malfeasance? Should it have been preventable? Could it have reasonably been predicted?Wiktionary defines the word incident to include design, which struck me as a strange idea. It is connected, however, to my thoughts about intentionality. To quote (their links),

Noun
incident (plural: incidents)
A designed, sudden, and unfortunate event.
An unfortunate occurence which happens by design.

Adjective
incident
Of light, or a stream of particles: falling (on) or striking (e.g. "The incident light illuminated the surface.")

Derivitive terms
coincidence (i.e. incidents correspond), (incident management), etc.

There are many better word choices than incident. The Thesaurus suggests a number of different words that would have been more accurate descriptors, giving a better indication of the antecedents of the occurrence. In other words, how and why did this event happen:

occurrence. Synonyms: adventure, circumstance, . . . episode, event, fact, . . . goings-on, . . . happening, matter, milestone, occasion, scene, thing, trip

"Critical incident management" is a term used to describe crisis intervention, internationally or closer to home, for example. Often an event would be better described by including the modifiers critical or minor.

Tags: Death Articles Current Affairs events News thoughts writing journalism
My "creative post" today at Southwest Blogger is about mosques and myths.