The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.
Etymology (i.e. the origins of the word)
'Serendip' is an old Persian name for the country now known as Sri Lanka. The word comes from an ancient Persian fairy tale 'The Three Princes of Serendip' in which the main characters make fortunate discoveries by accident.
The word was brought into the English venacular by author Horace Walpole; in a letter he wrote, he coined the term 'serendipity'..."this discovery, indeed, is almost of that kind which I call Serendipity, a very expressive word."
Some interesting serendiptious moments in history:
* Christopher Colombus looking for a new route to India found the Americas.
* An apple fell on Sir Isaac Newtown's head leading him to ponder about the nature of gravity.
* The slinky was invented when a US navy engineer accidentally knocked a torsion spring off his work table.
* Penicillin was dicovered by Alexander Fleming when he absent mindedly left out a glass culture dish
* Edwin Jenner discovered vaccination when he observed that milk maids did not catch smallpox after being exposed to cowpox.
The word 'zemblanity' was created by William Boyd as an antonym to serendipity meaning "making unhappy, unlucky and expected discoveries occurring by design." But it didn't quite take off quite so much as the word serendipity. It doesn't quite roll off the tongue does it? Also no one likes a whinger Boydy!
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