Hypertext Webster Gateway: "adventitious"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Adventitious \Ad`ven*ti"tious\, a. [L. adventitius.]
1. Added extrinsically; not essentially inherent; accidental
or causal; additional; supervenient; foreign.
To things of great dimensions, if we annex an
adventitious idea of terror, they become without
comparison greater. --Burke.
2. (Nat. Hist.) Out of the proper or usual place; as,
adventitious buds or roots.
3. (Bot.) Accidentally or sparingly spontaneous in a country
or district; not fully naturalized; adventive; -- applied
to foreign plants.
4. (Med.) Acquired, as diseases; accidental. --
{Ad`ven*ti"tious*ly}, adv. -- {Ad`ven*ti"tious*ness}, n.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
adventitious
adj : associated by chance and not an integral part; "poetry is
something to which words are the accidental, not by any
means the essential form"- Frederick W. Robertson;
"they had to decide whether his misconduct was
adventitious or the result of a flaw in his character"
[syn: {accidental}]
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