Friday, September 01, 2006

Serendipitous finds

You'll notice I am going back into the archives and labelling old posts, so that they may be sorted on the sidebar according to topic. With over 600 posts, this may take a while. Someone asked just what "serendipitous finds" are. Why didn't I just say bargains?
seren·dipi·tous adj.
seren·dipi·tous·ly adv.
Word History: We are indebted to the English author Horace Walpole for the word serendipity, which he coined in one of the 3,000 or more letters on which his literary reputation primarily rests. In a letter of January 28, 1754, Walpole says that "this discovery, indeed, is almost of that kind which I call Serendipity, a very expressive word." Walpole formed the word on an old name for Sri Lanka, Serendip. He explained that this name was part of the title of "a silly fairy tale, called The Three Princes of Serendip: as their highnesses traveled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of...."

I considered using "providential finds" instead, but just liked the word serendipity better : )

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