Two parts caught my attention when I read the entry for the noun ‘coincidence’ on etymonline, the super-useful Online Etymology Dictionary.
First:
Meaning that we use today of “a concurrence of events with no apparent connection, accidental or incidental agreement” is from the 1680s, perhaps first in writings of Sir Thomas Browne.
This was interesting. The “It’s just a coincidence” almost dismissive meaning that is commonly used today only came about in the late 1600s. What led up to that change? Was it sudden or gradual?
Second:
…from Mediaeval Latin coincidere, literally “to fall upon together,“
What does “to fall upon together” mean? The word ‘coincidence’ consists of ‘co’, which is Latin ‘com’, meaning ‘with, together’, plus Latin ‘incidere’, which means ‘to fall upon’. So, I followed the breadcrumbs and came to the entry for ‘incident’, which is the present participle of incidere, and found that there are several meanings in addition to “to fall upon”. They include ‘to fall in’, ‘fall’, ‘find the way’, ‘light upon’, ‘occur’, ‘happen’, and ‘befall’.
I’m not an expert, so I don’t know exactly why ‘to fall upon together’ was chosen as the meaning to include in the coincidence entry, but if we swap in some of the other meanings of incidere ‘coincidence’ would be ‘to fall together’, ‘to find the way together’, ‘to light upon together’, ‘to occur together’, or ‘to happen together’.
When I look at all of these together, ‘to fall upon together’ is clearer to me. Perhaps it means to come across two things/events that are together, connected. Perhaps it is more important that the seemingly separate events are actually one, two parts of a whole. Perhaps it means two things/events fall upon something together. Two things/events find the way together. Two events occur together.
And if we want to get a little more metaphysical, what are they falling upon? What are they finding their way to? Our physical reality, perhaps?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you would like to be notified of new blog posts, monthly schedules, or other content, please visit Subscription Lists to learn more.