Expert: Ted Nesbitt - 11/12/2003

Question
Where does this word come from?  It's sounds unlike vertually any other word I know and noone seems to be sure where it comes from.


Cheers
Dan

(By the way.  I read your retirement notice but decided to use you anyway because I thought you might just have been in a mood with those people.)

Answer
Dan:

I'm still "retired."  In another area for which I volunteer, a lady asked a question last week.  I answered it.  She gave me a low score on my "clarity."  Then she wrote, "His answer was very clear, but my question was not.  Because I didn't ask the right question, I have lowered his evaluation."  

But Dan -- since you're a special person, here's the answer.

The country now known as "Sri Lanka" used to be called "Ceylon."  Before that, it was called "Serendip."  The Arabic form is "SerendiB."

In 1754, the Englishman Horace Walpole coined the word "serendipity" in a letter he wrote.  He made up the word based on a fairy tale called "The Three Princes of Serendip."

Here is the complete etymology of the word -- with examples of its usage -- the BIBLE of the word origin field, "The Oxford English Dictionary" --

[f. Serendip, a former name for Sri Lanka + -ITY.
 A word coined by Horace Walpole, who says (Let. to Mann, 28 Jan. 1754) that he had formed it upon the title of the fairy-tale ‘The Three Princes of Serendip', the heroes of which ‘were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of'.]

   The faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident. Also, the fact or an instance of such a discovery.
 Formerly rare, this word and its derivatives have had wide currency in the 20th century.

 1754 H. WALPOLE Let. to Mann 28 Jan., This discovery, indeed, is almost of that kind which I call Serendipity. 1880 E. SOLLY Index Titles of Honour Pref. 5 The inquirer was at fault, and it was not till some weeks later, when by the aid of Serendipity, as Horace Walpole called itthat is, looking for one thing and finding anotherthat the explanation was accidentally found. 1926 E. MEYNELL Life of Francis Thompson xiii. 221 To the Serendipity Shopthe venture of a friend in Westbourne Grovehe would often go. 1955 Sci. Amer. Apr. 92/1 Our story has as its critical episode one of those coincidences that show how discovery often depends on chance, or rather on what has been called ‘serendipity'the chance observation falling on a receptive eye. 1971 S. E. MORISON European Discovery Amer.: Northern Voy. i. 3 Columbus and Cabot..(by the greatest serendipity of history) discovered America instead of reaching the Indies. 1980 TWA Ambassador Oct. 47/2 It becomes a glum bureaucracy, instead of the serendipity of 30 people putting out a magazine.



   Hence serendipitist.

 1939 JOYCE Finnegans Wake 191 You..semisemitic serendipitist, you (thanks, I think that describes you) Europasianised Afferyank! 1968 Punch 13 Nov. 684/1 There are the financial serendipitists, the men blessed monetarily by a fortunate law.

DAN -- If this doesn't answer your question, I don't know what else to tell you!

Ted Nesbitt

Your evaluation of my response and possible nomination for "volunteer of the month" are the ONLY payments I receive for my work at Allexperts.  Thank you.  TN