Serendipity

I discovered this word in the Astro Wah Lai Toi series - The Gem of Life.  I did not understand the meaning as was expressed by one of the main characters - when she had met the man of her life but kept spurning him because her younger sister just married the man's father... well one of my greatest enjoyment of soap operas on Astro's chinese channel is its complexity :-) heheh.. anyway, it is a nice word.  5 syllable and meaningful, rarely used...


serendipity

–noun
1. an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.


2. good fortune; luck: the serendipity of getting the first job she applied for.



1754 (but rare before 20c.), coined by Horace Walpole (1717-92) in a letter to Mann (dated Jan. 28); he said he formed it from 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." The name is from Serendip, an old name for Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka), from Arabic Sarandib, from Skt. Simhaladvipa "Dwelling-Place-of-Lions Island." Serendipitous formed c.1950.