Serendipity

Etymological origins and history

Meaning: "the faculty of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for" (Webster's dictionary).

The etymological root of the word is "Serendip", which comes from "Sarandib". In Old Persian, Sarandib was the name of the island we now call Sri Lanka (Ceylon). The Persian name was a corruption of the Sanskrit "Sinhaladvipa" (island of lions), which was also the source of the name of the Sri Lankan language, Sinhalese.

The word was coined in 1754 by Horace Walpole, a writer, who said he was inspired by an old Persian fairy tale, called "the three Princes of Serendip". The three heroes of the tale were making happy and unexpected discoveries by insight into accidents pertaining to things they were not seeking for. In one of his 3,000 or more letters, on which his literary reputation rests, and specifically in a letter of January 28th 1754, Walpole first wrote that word, talking about a discovery, which was "almost of that kind which I call Serendipity, a very expressive word". He, then, explained that this name was part of the title of a "silly fairy tale, called The Three Princes of Serendip; as their highnesses travelled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of ...".

The word was made so famous in 20th century by Professor Robert King Merton (born in July 5th 1910), sociologist at Columbia University since 1946. His real name was Meyer Schkolnich, but he changed it in 1924, first in "Robert King Merlin" then in "R. K. Merton", for he thought he would have been a conjurer. He became, instead, the greatest sociologist of 20th century. He wrote several books about serendipity itself, social theory and social structure, and coined terms such as"role models" (for the youth), "deviant behaviour", "focus group" and he's the father of the ethics of science about Internet and the genome. Science's Award in 1994, Pulitzer and Magician's Award.

The "silly fairy tale" which led Walpole to coin his engaging word appeared in Venice in 1557 under the title, PEREGRINAGGIO DI TRE GIOVANI FIGLIUOLI DEL RE DI SERENDIPPO: PER OPERA DI M. CHRISTOFOR ARMENO DALLA PERSIANA NELL'ITALIANA LINGUA TRASPORTATO. This version of the tale was translated several times into French; it was de Mailly's translation into English in 1722 as THE TRAVELS AND ADVENTURES OF THREE PRINCES OF SERENDIP that came to Walpole's attention.

We're now trying to find the full text of the tale and hope it will soon available on this site. 

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