4. (Log.) (a) A property or quality of a thing which is not essential to it, as whiteness in paper; an attribute. (b) A quality or attribute in distinction from the substance, as sweetness, softness.
5. Any accidental property, fact, or relation; an accidental or nonessential; as, beauty is an accident.
This accident, as I call it, of Athens being situated some miles from the sea.
J. P. Mahaffy.