Consider the meaning. Note the word "apparent" in the first definition.
coincidence
a remarkable concurrence of events or circumstances without apparent causal connection.
"it was a coincidence that she was wearing a jersey like Laura's" In this case, either "she" and Laura have similar taste, or the weather, occasion and social expectations combined to cause the two women to choose similar clothing without consulting each other. This is a pretty common thing - not surprising at all. But because we don't think carefully enough about the obvious causes, we don't see the connection
the fact of corresponding in nature or in time of occurrence.
"the coincidence of interest between the mining companies and certain politicians" This example is slightly harder to unravel because it's highly likely that the companies are run by people who support certain parties and their politicians. I'd say it's a hopelessly bad example. A better example might be that someone with a camera happens to be in a certain place when a particularly unusual event occurs, such as the falling of a fragment of an asteroid.
As you surely must have known since you were in junior school, there is no such verb as "to incide", therefore, LOGICALLY things cannot "co-incide" because that means "to incide together". The abstract noun "coincidence" is derived from the prefixed verb "to coincide" which itself is derived from the nonexistent vern "to incide". From that, how can there LOGICALLY be such a thing as coincidence?
This post was edited by Bez at April 4, 2020 8:49 AM MDT
Language usually is logical, and each language has its own logic. But all languages contain exceptions to their rules, English more so than any other.
According to linguists, meaning in language is ultimately determined not by logic but by usage. Various words are coined and come gradually into wider and wider usage until they are so prevalent that they are adopted into subsequent dictionaries. In the meantime, many words drop out of usage, and are gradually designated as old-fashioned, obscure or obsolete. Few would now use the verb to hap, yet in English it has roots from four different languages, giving us modern words like happy, happen, happenstance and haploid. Other words mutate, such as nice, silly, sin and naughty. All started these out with totally different meanings to the ones they have today.
In addition, people often give personal connotations to the meaning of specific words. We all recognise and accept this when we're talking with people we know well, or when academics are defining the parameters of their key words.
The meaning of the word coincidence is defined by every English dictionary. The meaning is so thoroughly accepted that even scientists and statisticians use the concept as one of the key factors in calculating the potential for error in hypothesis, experimental design and process, and analysis of the results.
The legal, literary, intellectual and common social arbiter of meaning is always a dictionary collectively produced by experts who continually study how the language is used. The same applies to grammar even though the rate of change is far slower. The accepted structural use of a word with in a sentence changes with usage independent of the rules of grammar. A verb may become a noun and vice versa. Any word can transmute into an adjective or an adverb and in the process the meaning can sometimes shift so that is has nothing to do with its root origins.
In this case, the origins move from Latin, to Medieval Latin, and thence into English. Try checking the original meaning in an etymological dictionary. It works most of the time.
This post was edited by inky at April 5, 2020 4:06 AM MDT
The meaning of "coincidence" may be in the dictionary but it's just a derivative, spinoff word from the nonexistent verb "to incide". Why isn't "incide" in the dictionary?
In English, there are many instances in which there is no logic whatsoever other than the way a meaning has drifted in common usage over a long period of time.
And there are words which change according to the rules of the original language from which they were adopted.
In this case, a little exploration into the etymology of the word explains it.
In Latin, "incidere" can means "to fall" or "to agree" depending on the context.
In Medieval Latin, "coincidere" meant "to fall together in the same place."
We get the words "coincide" from the Latin.
This post was edited by inky at April 4, 2020 2:30 PM MDT
Don Barzini 