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Serendipity
- Type
- Concept
- By
- Term coined by Horace Walpole (1754)
- Publisher
- Language
- Source
- Wikipedia ↗
- Published
- 1754
A happy accident: finding something valuable you were not looking for. Serendipity is the friendly cousin of coincidence — lucky, but not necessarily meaningful.
Horace Walpole coined "serendipity" in a 1754 letter, drawing on 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." It names a fortunate discovery made while looking for something else.
Serendipity is coincidence's friendly cousin, and the distinction matters. Penicillin, X-rays, and vulcanized rubber all arrived partly by accident — but nobody had to claim the universe was speaking. Serendipity is lucky; synchronicity claims to be meaningful. Most of the debate on this shelf is about whether that extra claim is justified.
Making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of.
The meaning
The history of science is full of serendipity — penicillin, X-rays, vulcanized rubber — which some read as evidence that the universe rewards attention.
The skeptic
Serendipity is selection bias with a nicer name: you only hear about the accidents that worked. Most accidents do not.
About the source
English writer Horace Walpole coined the word in a 1754 letter, after the Persian fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip.
Key takeaways
- Serendipity is a fortunate discovery made while looking for something else.
- Walpole coined it in 1754 from the fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip.
- It differs from synchronicity: lucky is not the same as meaningful.