Tipworld -> Usage
Mistake Prone

A manuscript we encountered recently discussed the hazards of carrying around a "theft-prone laptop." The problem here is that "prone" means having a tendency or inclination to produce or incur a certain result. Thus "accident-prone" means "prone to cause accidents"; "violence-prone" means "prone to commit acts of violence"; and "injury-prone" means "prone to incur injuries." In all of these instances, the word "prone" implies that some action or behavior of the subject is responsible for the result (an accident, violence, an injury). A balky notebook computer might fairly be described as crash-prone if it tends to freeze up frequently. But nothing a computer actively does encourages its being stolen; rather, the machine is inherently vulnerable to theft by others. Here's the distinction:

Right: The second time he returned from a romp in the park with someone's wallet in his mouth, we realized our schnauzer was theft-prone.
Wrong: When we reported our dog Rusty missing and the police officer said, "It's a schnauzer, right?" we realized schnauzers were theft-prone.
Corrected: When we reported our dog Rusty missing and the police officer said, "It's a schnauzer, right?" we realized schnauzers were especially vulnerable to theft [or "were a popular target of thieves"].