ocurrido

Ocorrido is the past participle of the Spanish verb ocurrir, meaning to occur or to happen. It is used in compound tenses with haber (ha ocurrido, ocurrió) and can also function as an adjective to describe events that have taken place, as in los hechos ocurridos. The expression lo ocurrido refers to what happened or the events that took place.

Etymology and meaning: Occurrir derives from Latin occurrere, meaning to run to meet or to happen. Through the evolution of Spanish, ocurrir acquired its current sense of an event taking place, and ocurrido became its participle form.

Usage and form: As an adjective, ocurrido agrees with the noun in gender and number: un hecho ocurrido, los hechos ocurridos, una situación ocurrida, las circunstancias ocurridas. The feminine form is ocurrida and the feminine plural is ocurridas. In ordinary speech, the simple preterite (ocurrió) and the present perfect (ha ocurrido) are more common than using the participle alone, but ocurrido appears regularly in written prose and formal contexts to emphasize that something has already taken place.

Related terms: Ocurrencia refers to an occurrence or happening, and ocurrirse is a related verb meaning to occur to someone or to come to mind. The expression lo ocurrido is a common noun-like phrase used to refer to events that have transpired.

In summary, ocurrido functions as both a participle and an adjective in Spanish, central to describing past events and specifying what has taken place, with usage spanning everyday language and formal writing.