Learn English – Preposition for “Encounter”

prepositions

The usual preposition after the word, "Encounter" is "with". Such as, "My encounter with an old friend". But I saw "of" being used as a preposition in an example sentence in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, under this definition:

3: a coming into the vicinity of a celestial body "the Martian encounter of a spacecraft."

Does this mean that the Martian encountered the spacecraft? Or the spacecraft encountered the Martian? Also, if I were to use other celestial bodies such as Earth, would I say,"The Earth encounter of a spacecraft"? Will the preposition "of" work when we are using non-celestial bodies, such as "My encounter of my old friend"?

Best Answer

The sentences can both be re-written to the same structure.

"the Martian encounter of a spacecraft."

can be paraphrased as

"the encounter of a spacecraft with Mars"

and

my encounter with an old friend

can be written

the encounter of me with an old friend

Does that explain it?

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