Talk:serendipity

Re the sentence "Hernando Cortez's discovery of the Grand Canyon was a result of serendipity" which I have deleted:

1. I'm not sure if a geographical discovery can really be called serendipity.

2. The reference is a bit obscure. I'd claim to know a fair bit about world history but had never come across this. I would expect people in China and Korea would find it even more obscure. If we do want a geographical example, reaching America while seeking a route to India is better.

3.The accidental discovery of penicillin (which maybe should be presented in italics after the definition, rather than as part of it), is sufficient. 213.208.107.91 08:10, 26 Jun 2005 (UTC)

4. Murphy's law can't really be called an antonym of serendipity.

serendipity
Redundant (indistinct) senses. --Connel MacKenzie 18:45, 10 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Yup, I would say so. DAVilla 22:58, 11 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Same here. I can't see any difference among the three definitions we currently have. --EncycloPetey 05:19, 12 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Agree that senses 1 and 2 equivalent, but note that sense 3 is not uncountable. I'm not sure how to format where one sense is countable and the other isn't 87.114.156.2 15:53, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Hello, is not it just a sophisticated by-word for
"godsend" &  "windfall" (which I did not see mentioned )? We have a french prissy equivalent : "aubaine" (inheritance from a dead family-less foreigner, adjuged to the local landlord or to the king...)  - and a lot of popular sentences (maybe because poorer men have more to rejoice about, when stumbling over a lost purse...) : "chance" et"coup de chance" (lucky strike) - "coup de pot"  (happy scoop from the pot). "Pot" for "luck" is in the "Petit Larousse 2008", which is for us a warrant of its existence in usual language. T.y.,  Arapaima 07:50, 28 January 2010 (UTC)

Entry mention on The Writer's Almanac
I guess Wiktionary doesn't have a like Wikipedia, but Garrison Keillor mentioned this Wiktionary entry on today's Writer's Almanac on NPR:  Ulmanor (talk) 17:38, 28 January 2015 (UTC)