per accidens vs per se

per accidens

adv
  • By chance; by reason of an accidental, incidental or non-essential circumstance; contingently; indirectly. 

per se

adv
  • Without determination by or involvement of extraneous factors; by its very nature. 

  • In a true or literal sense; as one would expect from the name or description. 

  • Not leaving discretion to the judge to take into account additional factors that could rebut the judgment, deriving the qualification from the statute. 

  • Being a thing that posits itself and is a principle of its own determination. 

adj
  • Positing itself and being a principle of its own determination. 

How often have the words per accidens and per se occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )