A word coined in a letter
The three princes
Serendipity · 28 January 1754 · A letter, Strawberry Hill to Florence
serendipity
He needed a word for finding what you were not looking for.
Walpole tells Mann he has made a discovery, in part by accident, and he wants a word. He remembers a fairy tale: the three princes of Serendip, who were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of. He calls this serendipity.
Accident and sagacity. Both.
Concordance
- The thing
- A letter that names a kind of happy accident and ties it to a story.
- Seen
- Walpole writes of discoveries made by accident and sagacity.
- Sourced
- The Yale edition of Walpole’s correspondence. Letter of 28 January 1754.
- Miss
- Later usage often drops sagacity and keeps only luck.
- One question remains
- What is lost when luck is kept and sagacity is dropped?
