Serendipity35

On January 28, 1754, the word “serendipity” was first coined. This blog showed up 252 years later, serendipitously.

It’s defined by Merriam-Webster as “the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.” However, it was listed by a U.K. translation company as one of the 10 most difficult English words to translate. 

The invention of many "agreeable" things has been attributed to “serendipity,” including Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, Charles Goodyear’s vulcanization of rubber, inkjet printers, Silly Putty, the Slinky, chocolate chip cookies, and this blog.

Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin after he left for vacation without disinfecting some of his petri dishes filled with bacterial cultures; when he got back to his lab, he found that the penicillium mold had killed the bacteria.

Viagra had been developed to treat hypertension and angina pectoris. It didn’t do such a good job at these things, researchers found during the first phase of clinical trials, but it was good for something else.

The principles of radioactivity, X-rays, and infrared radiation were all found when researchers were looking for something else.

Julius Comroe said, “Serendipity is looking in a haystack for a needle and discovering a farmer’s daughter.”

Wiktionary lists serendipity’s antonyms as “Murphy’s law” and “perfect storm.”

“Serendipity” was first used by parliament member and writer Horace Walpole. He reported that he came up with the word after reading a fairy tale called “The Three Princes of Serendip.” As the Princes travelled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not seeking. The three princes of Serendip hail from modern-day Sri Lanka. “Serendip” is the Persian word for that island nation off the southern tip of India.