accident of birth

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

accident of birth (plural accidents of birth)

1. (idiomatic) A fact, situation, or personal characteristic, which may be desirable or undesirable, resulting from the circumstances into which a person was born, and which is therefore entirely beyond their control.
   • 1899, Charles W. Chesnutt, “Uncle Wellington's Wives”, in The Wife of his Youth and Other Stories:

     [H]e said to himself that he was a very good-looking man, and could have adorned a much higher sphere in life than that in which the accident of birth had placed him.

   • 1910, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 4, in A Texas Ranger:

     "You're no brother of mine," she broke in. "At most it is an accident of birth I disown. I'll have no relationship with you of any sort."

   • 1915, Rex Ellingwood Beach, chapter 9, in Heart of the Sunset:

     An accident of birth had made him a citizen of the United States—his father having owned a ranch which lay north instead of south of the Rio Grande.

Translations

situation or characteristic resulting from birth

• Finnish: syntymävamma (negative); syntymälahja (positive)
• Portuguese: acidente de percurso