Is "concatenation of errors" an acceptable phrase in english?

I know that "concatenation of events" is used in the English language, I therefore wonder whether "concatenation of errors", a direct translation of the German "Aneinanderreihung von Fehlern" is appropriate as well.

Example: "The large deviation from the theoretical value is caused by a concatenation of errors, in particular by [...]"


Solution 1:

Concatenation = a series of events, ideas, or things that are connected

Cambridge dictionary

P G Wodehouse uses the word. Here is one example from The Catnappers:

“What are those things circumstances have, Jeeves?” I said.

“Sir?”

“You know what I mean. You talk of a something of circumstances which leads to something. Cats enter into it, if I’m not wrong.”

“Would concatenation be the word you are seeking?”

“That’s right. It was on the tip of my tongue. Do concatenations of circumstances arise?”

“Yes, sir.”

Wodehouse refers to circumstances that lead to something. It is also appropriate to refer to errors in the same way, errors merely being a special sort of circumstance.

The root of the word is in the Latin catena, a chain. This idea of sequential connection of the links in the chain lies behind the idea that the sequencing of events or circumstances is important in leading to the eventual outcome. The same idea is in your German word, something like “one after the other sequence”.