What do "случайно" and "не случайно" mean?

Question

Somebody sent me a letter that included this sentence

Извини, это я сделала не случайно.

I looked up случайно and it had the definition

accidentally, by accident, casually, by chance

So I assumed не случайно meant not accidentally, i.e. on purpose. But the person who wrote me said не случайно means on accident.

Does the negation of the word really mean the same thing, or am I missing something?

"Does the negation of the word really mean the same thing" no — hazzik, Aug 9 '12 at 12:51
Gramatically, this means: "Sorry, I did it intentionally". It's impossible to tell whether your correspondent meant it or not without additional context. — Quassnoi, Aug 9 '12 at 13:46
@Quassnoi I think I figured it out. I think there was a confusion betweeon "нечаянно" and "случайно". — Peter Olson, May 24 '13 at 21:24

Researcher · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-09 13:07:38Z

9

No. It's probably just a typo. Your assumptions about the meaning of не случайно are correct.

answered Aug 9 '12 at 13:07

Researcher

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7

I agree. I can only add that the person who wrote the letter probably wanted to write "не нарочно", which means "not on purpose", but then corrected it for "случайно" and forgot to delete the negation.
– Olga
Aug 9 '12 at 15:55

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