occasioned

Occasioned is the past tense and past participle of the verb occasion. It means to cause something to happen or to bring about a result, and it is typically used in formal or technical writing. When something is said to be occasioned by a factor, that factor is the cause or trigger of the event. The construction is often passive, as in "The outage was occasioned by a software fault" or "The incident was occasioned by human error." The sense is closer to "caused" or "produced" than merely "happened."

Origin and usage: The noun occasion comes from Old French occasion and Latin occasio, meaning a favorable time or opportunity; the verb sense to produce an occasion developed in Middle English. In modern English, the primary sense remains "to cause to occur," and the word is most common in formal contexts. A related but rarer sense of occasion is to provide an opportunity for something, as in "the remark occasioned a reaction."

Related terms include cause, trigger, engender, bring about, induce, and prompt. Antonyms include prevent and avert. Usage notes: avoid overuse and prefer more direct verbs like cause or lead to in everyday writing; occasioned is best reserved for formal or legal prose where a precise causal link is being stated.