To think there needs to be a word between accident and deliberate?

[pumpandthump]

Like careless but...more?

DH has broken something of mine which can't be replaced. It was deliberate as he didn't set out to break it, but nor was it an accident as whilst fairly unlikely, it could have been predicted.

I'm just angry at him and he thinks it's unjust as "it was accident".

The language of risk management might be helpful here: accepting or mitigating risks.

@pumpandthump It's either deliberate, or it's an accident. It can't be anything else really ... Anything else/any other wording, is just balderdash.

If someone didn't mean to do it (and was careless/clumsy,) then it was an accident.

Accident definition:

.....an unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury.

.....an event that happens by chance or that is without apparent or deliberate cause.

If it is done with intention to break something out of spite or malice, then it's 'deliberate.'

Deliberate definition...

......done consciously and intentionally...

......(often of something bad) intentional or planned.... A deliberate movement, action, or thought..

There's no 'grey areas' or 'in between' ... It's either accidental - or it's deliberate.

There's no 'grey areas' or 'in between' ... It's either accidental - or it's deliberate.

But when someone is negligent, the outcome isn’t without apparent cause. It happens because they neglect to take action they should have taken.

Deliberate accidentalness

How about

being careless/ not paying attention to what he was doing

Lack of foresight.
Without due care.
Clumsiness.

Was going to say inadvertent from the title.

The ‘unexpectedly’ part of your definition is key Tigeronatrain. If you balance several full glasses to carry them to a table it’s not unexpected if you spill some. If you give a toddler paints in the living room it’s not unexpected that some will end up on the wall. If you leave the kitchen floor wet it’s not unexpected that someone may slip on it. Those are all foreseeable outcomes.

@TigerOnATrain that's not true at all! You can very easily break something by being careless/reckless I.e. it's not happening just 'by chance' - like the playing football indoors example, you may not mean to break something, but it hasn't simply happened by chance as it was clearly a strong possibility of it happening.

Imagine how the law would function if there was simply black and white! Why do you imagine man slaughter exists and the huge variety in sentence lengths for certain crimes. It's just a fact that there's a huge variety of actions in between a genuine accident and a deliberate plan.

Of course there are grey areas! As others have said, recklessness, negligence, lack of due care and attention...

If he did something stupid that directly contributed to breaking the item, and is now trying to abdicate responsibility because ‘he didn’t mean to do it’ then he’s a bit of a dick. He should admit responsibility and apologise accordingly.

The word we use in this house is "slapdash".

Usually me rather than DH

Reckless or negligent. While still an accident, it conveys the fact that it was preventable and a degree of fault.

You slip and fall while climbing a tree , accident.

You swing about, do one handed tricks and generally mess about in a tree. Reckless accident. You didn't mean to harm yourself or others, but without your actions it wouldn't have happened.

You throw yourself off a tree? Not an accident.

If someone is 'careless' and spills something or breaks something, because they weren't paying attention properly, it's still an ACCIDENT FFS.

Keep trying to call it something else by all means, but it's an ACCIDENT.

There's no 'grey areas' or 'in between' ... It's either accidental - or it's deliberate.

If you're speaking English... I suspect other languages (German ?) might disagree and have just the word. Like they do for coincidences that aren't ...

Inadvertent?

@TigerOnATrain perfectly demonstrating the point of my OP. There, in my opinion, should be a word. Many languages have words which describe things that English doesn't.

It's a picture, broken by use of a remote control helicopter that we agreed would not be used in the living room due to the difficulty controling it and the number of breakable things in there. The photo has huge sentimental value and is irreplaceable, the frame dropped, the glass smashed and photo scratched and ripped.

Like a PP said negligent.

Thoughtless

But the action could have been avoided with sensible behaviour / forethought. It's not an 'unfortunate accident' in those circumstances. It's causative effect.

It’s called ‘accidentally on purpose’.

This is something I keep having to explain to my 7 year old. Something can be an accident and still be your fault for not taking enough care.

There is a word!!!!! It's called recklessness!! He didn't intend the outcome but any reasonable person would or could have foreseen it therefore it was reckless.

I was having this conversation with my 3 year old yesterday and trying to explain there was a spectrum between accident and on purpose and an accident where she was pratting about wasn’t the same as an unpredictable one. She didn’t really get it though (like your DH...)

The photo could possibly be fixes. There are people that restore old,damaged photos. Obviously it won't be the same picture, but you might have the image.

I needed this word when out for a family Christmas lunch and a family member k picked over their full glass of wine into my dinner plate, meaning the food was inedible. We’d been eating for about five minutes and I deliberately didn’t have a starter because I always end up too full .

DD gave me some of her leftovers but I felt really annoyed about it but didn’t want to make the family member feel bad.