on accident

[Barnhart]

>maberry at U.WASHINGTON.EDU,Net writes:

>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.

>allen
>maberry at u.washington.edu

Yes, it did come up a couple of years ago.  The first reference in the
archives is this from 2000:

This morning an AP story on the Simpsons, reprinted in our student
newspaper, contained the following description of Maggie Simpson:
"Perpetual infant best known for shooting Monty Burns, on accident."
I had first heard the phrase "on accident" in the early '80s from my
son, then 12 or so. It struck me then as formed on the analogy of "on
purpose", (although why that wouldn't have change to "by purpose" on
analogy to "by accident" I can't imagine). Today was the first time I'd
seen it in print, and the timing was perfect since I was talking to my
HEL class today about analogic change. The students in the class are
all Midwestern, white, and in their early twenties. I asked how many
would normally say "on accident" and nearly every hand went up, About
3/4 of them said they would never say "by accident" and some weren't
even familiar with it. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage
(1989) has entries for "accidentally" and "on" but not "on accident."
I've just done a search of the ADS-L archives for the phrase and didn't
come up with anything.
On the basis of my limited experience, then, I'd guess that the change
started in the Midwest (we moved to Indiana from Atlanta in 1980 and my
children didn't say "on accident" before that) in the late 70s to early
80s and has pretty much taken over in this population.
Does anyone know of other references to the phrase, its sources and its
spread?
Herb Stahlke
AND
I have been following the ADS discussion of 'on accident' with some
interest since I have been studying it for the past several years and
am in the process of writing up a paper on it. I have data collected in
Indiana, Michigan, and California, with speakers of all ages and
actually from many different states. There is definitely an age
correlation in both usage and acceptance, and I have found it in every
region studied so far, but I can't give all the details here. Because
of the discussion, I am going to run it in Georgia too. I have been
trying to get the analysis done over the past week since everyone
started discussing it and will attempt to have it out this spring.
Leslie Barratt ejlesbb at root.indstate.edu Indiana State University
AND
Ron Butters said: > > I just asked two guys from Chicago about this
(one is actually from central > Micihgan, age about 30; the other is
40). > > They are both aware of BOTH usages and seem to find a semantic
distinction > between them: BY ACCIDENT means "unintentionally" in a
broad sense; ON > ACCIDENT refers to some physical incident in which
someone is culpible: BY > ACCIDENT I CAME ACROSS SOME FAMILY JEWELS
HIDDENT IN A WALL but ON ACCIDENT I > TIPPED OVER THE DRINK. > This
sounds absolutely right to me. I think it further underscores the
relation to 'on purpose', since the kinds of things that get done 'on
acci- dent' can also get done 'on purpose', but those that happen 'by
accident' can't necessarily _happen_ 'on purpose'.
Lynne

Just to cite a couple.
Regards,
David Barnhart