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In 1754 the word"serendipity" was first coined. It's defined by Merriam-Webster as"the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things notsought for." It was recently listed by a U.K. translation company as oneof the English language's 10 most difficult words to translate. Other words tomake their list include plenipotentiary, gobbledegook, poppycock, whimsy, spam,and kitsch.
"Serendipity" was firstused by parliament member and writer Horace Walpole in a letter that he wroteto an English friend who was spending time in Italy. In the letter to his friend written in 1754, Walpole wrote that he came up with the wordafter a fairy tale he once read, called "The Three Princes ofSerendip," explaining, "as their Highnesses travelled, they werealways making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they werenot in quest of." The three princes of Serendip hail from modern-day SriLanka. "Serendip" is the Persian word for the island nation off thesouthern tip of India, Sri Lanka.
The invention of many wonderfulthings have been attributed to "serendipity," including Kellogg'sCorn Flakes, Charles Goodyear's vulcanization of rubber, inkjet printers, SillyPutty, the Slinky, and chocolate chip cookies.
Alexander Fleming discoveredpenicillin after he left for vacation without disinfecting some of his petridishes filled with bacteria cultures; when he got back to his lab, he foundthat the penicillium mold had killed the bacteria.
Viagra had been developed to treathypertension and angina pectoris; it didn't do such a good job at these things,researchers found during the first phase of clinical trials, but it was goodfor something else.
The principles of radioactivity,X-rays, and infrared radiation were all found when researchers were looking forsomething else.
Julius Comroe said,"Serendipity is looking in a haystack for a needle and discovering afarmer's daughter."
Wiktionary lists serendipity'santonyms as "Murphy's law" and "perfect storm."
"Serendipity" was firstused by parliament member and writer Horace Walpole in a letter that he wroteto an English friend who was spending time in Italy. In the letter to his friend written in 1754, Walpole wrote that he came up with the wordafter a fairy tale he once read, called "The Three Princes ofSerendip," explaining, "as their Highnesses travelled, they werealways making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they werenot in quest of." The three princes of Serendip hail from modern-day SriLanka. "Serendip" is the Persian word for the island nation off thesouthern tip of India, Sri Lanka.
The invention of many wonderfulthings have been attributed to "serendipity," including Kellogg'sCorn Flakes, Charles Goodyear's vulcanization of rubber, inkjet printers, SillyPutty, the Slinky, and chocolate chip cookies.
Alexander Fleming discoveredpenicillin after he left for vacation without disinfecting some of his petridishes filled with bacteria cultures; when he got back to his lab, he foundthat the penicillium mold had killed the bacteria.
Viagra had been developed to treathypertension and angina pectoris; it didn't do such a good job at these things,researchers found during the first phase of clinical trials, but it was goodfor something else.
The principles of radioactivity,X-rays, and infrared radiation were all found when researchers were looking forsomething else.
Julius Comroe said,"Serendipity is looking in a haystack for a needle and discovering afarmer's daughter."
Wiktionary lists serendipity'santonyms as "Murphy's law" and "perfect storm."
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