Incidences - words, words, words eh?

We used to have "incidents" but "incidence" used to mean, I think, how often something happened. But now we have "incidences" for "incidents" (R4 News just now). "Incidences" used to be quite a technical word, used by sociologists and scientists. Now it has been democratised - how lovely - to be the plural of incident as well. See, I'm not just an old grouch.