Origins
The word 'fortune' entered English around 1300 from Old French 'fortune,' descended from Latin 'fortūna,' meaning 'chance,' 'fate,' 'luck,' or 'prosperity.' The Latin noun derives from 'fors' (chance, that which is brought), connected to the verb 'ferre' (to carry, to bring), from the Proto-Indo-European root *bʰer- (to carry, to bear). Fortune, at its etymological root, is what fate carries toward you — the things that chance brings.
The Roman goddess Fortuna was one of the most widely worshipped deities of the ancient world. She was depicted holding a cornucopia (horn of plenty) in one hand and a rudder or wheel in the other. The wheel of fortune — 'rota Fortunae' — symbolized the arbitrary, revolving nature of luck: those at the top would inevitably descend, and those at the bottom might rise. This image persisted throughout the medieval period and beyond. Boethius's 'Consolation of Philosophy' (c. 524 CE), one of the most influential texts of the Middle Ages, features an extended meditation on Fortuna and her wheel. The Carmina Burana (thirteenth century) opens with 'O Fortuna,' a lament on the cruelty and fickleness of fate, later set to music by Carl Orff in 1936.
The word entered English with several overlapping senses that it retains today. Fortune as chance or destiny: 'fortune smiled on him,' 'the fortunes of war,' 'fortune favors the bold' (translating Latin 'audentis Fortuna iuvat,' from Virgil). Fortune as wealth: 'he made a fortune,' 'she inherited a fortune,' 'fortune hunter.' Fortune as future prediction: 'to tell someone's fortune,' 'fortune cookie,' 'fortune teller.' These senses are not contradictory but complementary — they all orbit the idea that what you receive in life comes partly through forces beyond your control.
French Influence
The derivative 'fortunate' (lucky, favored by fortune) and its negative 'unfortunate' are standard English. 'Misfortune' combines the Old French prefix 'mis-' (badly) with 'fortune.' The adjective 'fortuitous' (happening by chance) comes from the same Latin root 'fors' and technically means 'by chance' rather than 'by good chance,' though many modern speakers use it as a synonym for 'fortunate' — a semantic drift that prescriptivists resist.
The PIE root *bʰer- (to carry) is one of the most productive in the language family. Through Latin 'ferre': 'transfer,' 'refer,' 'prefer,' 'confer,' 'differ,' 'infer,' 'offer,' 'suffer,' and 'fertile' (able to bear fruit). Through Greek 'phérein': 'phosphorus' (light-bearer), 'Christopher' (Christ-bearer), and 'euphoria' (bearing well, a good state). Through the Germanic branch: English 'bear' (to carry, and the animal — originally 'the brown one,' a taboo replacement for the animal's real name), 'birth' (the carrying forth), 'burden' (a thing borne), and 'bier' (a frame for carrying the dead).
The 'fortune cookie' — a folded wafer containing a printed prediction or aphorism — was popularized in California in the early twentieth century and has become the most widely distributed fortune-telling device in the world. Despite associations with Chinese cuisine, the fortune cookie was likely invented by Japanese-American immigrants in San Francisco or Los Angeles. The word 'fortune' in this context preserves the ancient connection between chance, fate, and knowledge of the future.