on accident

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:44 AM -0800 1/14/03, A. Maberry wrote:
>On Tue, 14 Jan 2003, David Bergdahl wrote:
>>  2.  My daughter in Seattle writes "people on this coast say 'on accident'
>>  instead of 'by accident' which sounds really weird to me. Have I mentioned
>>  that to you before? For example, 'I went to the wrong classroom on
>>  accident.'" I, personally, have never heard this--is it west coast or just
>>  NW?
>>  _________________________________________
>
>If I remember correctly this came up a couple of years ago.
>I don't think I've ever heard anyone in Washington or Oregon use "on
>accident" instead of "by accident". On the other hand, so many people have
>moved to the NW especially to Seattle over the 25 years or so, she might
>hear "on accident" regularly--just not from natives.
>
Yes, we talked about this a coon's age (or maybe even donkey's years)
ago, and concluded, or at least some of us did, that it was more a
generational thing than a regional one.  Kids say "on accident" a
whole lot, I assume by analogy with "on purpose".   Maybe more
Northwesterners (or emigres to the NW) are forever young and retain
the usage longer.

L
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