The beautiful meaning behind the word ‘serendipity’

When you learn another language there are certain new words that you enjoy saying, they really 'take your fancy'.

I have always liked the word 'papillon' in French, but then again I like its equivalent, 'butterfly', in English and the word for butterly in Spanish too - 'mariposa' – in fact I love butterflies so perhaps that's why I like saying those words. A friend of mine likes the word 'crepuscule' in French, its equivalent in English – 'twilight' – is rather lovely too. Parapluie was another friend's favourite French word, it certainly says what it does whereas in English 'umbrella' isn't quite so descriptive, it comes from Latin, an umbel is a flat-topped rounded flower, the shape of an umbrella, we often shorten umbrella to 'brolly'. 'Don't forget your brolly!' is an often rerpeated phrase in England or even for here at the moment in this wet winter!

Pamplemousse is another favourite French word of many English speakers, perhaps it is the sounds these words make when we speak them or they conjure up an image which helps us remember them.

A word in the English language that I really like is 'serendipity', life seems to be littered with moments of serendipity. These are moments of unplanned, fortunate discovery, a chance development or find that has a happy or beneficial effect. Like for instance a friend was looking on the internet for fertilized chicken eggs! and she by chance fell upon a Pekingese dog for sale, went to see it , bought it and Mimi is now her best friend – certainly a serendipity moment.

I suppose that fact that I am here in France can be put down to serendipity, I was looking in a weekly classified adverts magazine for a second hand car, I noticed an advert for a house for sale in France, came to see it, bought it and I am still here some 30 years later - that is serendipity or happenstance, another word used to describe these fortuitous, unexpected happenings.

Serendipity was first used by politician Horace Walpole in 1754 in a letter he wrote explaining an unexpected discovery of a lost painting, he created the word serendipity from a Persian fairy tale 'The Three Princes of Serendip' who were always making discoveries by accident. Serendip was the old word for Sri Lanka (Ceylon).

I am sure we have all had many serendipitous moments in our lives and let's hope we will have many more. The French translation –' heureux hazard' doesn't quite have the same charming, lucky, happy sound to it, does it ? In fact I believe' sérendipité' has been officially added to the French language.