The Definition Of Accidental Death

A synonym is defined as a word or phrase that means the same or nearly the same as another word or phrase in the same language. Throughout the history of the English language, several synonyms appeared around the Middle Ages after the Norman invasion of England. Although England’s new leaders communicated through the Norman French language, the native inhabitants of England continued to speak Old English which resulted in Norman and Saxon-derived synonyms. With the later invention of the thesaurus, a recorded listing of words grouped together according to relationship of meaning are provided for public use. One would assume that the thesaurus is simply a list of synonyms for a specific word, but it should not be treated that way. The records …show more content…
Accidental death means that the casualty died from doing something they should not have done or by taking risks which put their lives in a deadly circumstance. Accidental deaths can range from anything such as alcohol poisoning to electrocution. The Old English word that is described as “to drown” is the word “adronc” which is now transcribed as “adrink”. The definition of this word is so simple yet so vague. A person could figuratively drown on alcohol and become intoxicated without the result of death, and the phrase “to drown one’s trouble” can take context away from this definition. Fortunately, this word is obsolete and did not even make it to Middle English vocabulary. The word that is described as “to suffer death by submersion in water” or “to perish by suffocation under water (or other liquid)” is the Middle English word “drun(e”, but it is not accompanied with any traceable Old English words. This word also traveled through many spellings, but it held the same meaning throughout history. Middle English finally transformed this word into the word that is still in use today. The word “drown” remains an intransitive verb with ultimately the same meaning. Although the word itself has changed throughout time, the meaning has not. Another way a person could potentially die from an unintended situation is through suffocation. This accidental death can be caused by many things. People can choke and die from eating food, inhaling smoke from fires, and can even suffer from allergic reactions caused by insects, plants, and food. The word “wyrgan” is defined as dying due to “stopping the supply of air through the lungs” and “other respiratory organs” (OED). This word is labeled as obsolete and so are its corresponding terms. After this word traveled through Middle English and into modern English, it ultimately come through with the spelling of “worry” meaning to die from “compressing the throat”. The