camorra

Pronounced: kuh-MORE-uh, noun

Notes: I have run across this word, but I didn’t know the proper definition

---

Yesterday’s word

The word accidence means “the rudiments or essentials of a subject”

First usage

Our word came into English in the early 1500s

Background / Comments

I would have guessed that this word was close to accident, so this definition was quite a surprise… and then I got another surprise when I looked up the background: our word comes from the Latin word accidentia, which is the neuter plural of accidēns, which is the present participle of accidere (to fall; befall): This happens to be the root of the word “accident”, so I have some satisfaction with my original guess.