Inadvertent Is Unintentional

Abstract

To the Editor.— Despite Dr Mayhew 1 and Webster's Third New International Dictionary, The Oxford English Dictionary dates the use of inadvertent to mean unintentional to 1742— and the American Heritage Dictionary says it still means that. If is meant—with its connotation of culpability—then the word negligent should be used. The term inadvertence, by itself, does not convey that meaning to me, or to most people.