Coined in 1754 by Horace Walpole from 'The Three Princes of Serendip' — Serendip being the old Persian name for Sri Lanka, from Sanskrit 'lion-island'.
The occurrence of finding valuable or pleasant things by chance; a fortunate accident of discovery.
Coined by Horace Walpole on 28 January 1754 in a letter to his friend Horace Mann. Walpole based it on the Persian fairy tale 'The Three Princes of Serendip', whose heroes 'were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of.' Serendip is an old Arabic and Persian name for Sri Lanka, derived from Sanskrit 'Siṃhaladvīpa' (island of the Sinhalese, literally 'lion-island'). The word languished
Serendipity was voted the most popular word in a 2004 poll by the British Council — and also the hardest English word to translate. Walpole invented it in a private letter, and it took 150 years to enter general use. The fairy tale that inspired it was itself translated from a lost Persian original, through Italian (1557), then into French
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