January 28, 2004

250 Years of Serendipity. The word "serendipity" (aka "accidental sagacity" or the art of making unexpected discoveries) was first coined 250 years ago today, on 28 January 1754. To mark the anniversary: a new book, The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity, not just a history of the word but "a protest against that rhetoric of science that defines discovery as anything other than a messy blend of inspiration, perspiration, error, and happy chance".
  • Wow. And I was going to just post that too. What a coincidence.
  • The coining of Serendipity
  • Have any of you read it? It sounds like a great find. The mention of "play" in jb's link really interested me.
  • I haven't read the book yet, but there is a sample chapter available, which I probably ought to have linked to in my original post. I like the way it tries to unpick the different strands of meaning in the word, rather than simply taking it for granted. I'm curious to know if there is any equivalent to "serendipity" in other languages. (languagehat, are you there?) The Germans have "fingerspitzengefuhl" (lovely word) which means roughly the same thing (a flair for making discoveries that isn't entirely under one's conscious control) but seems to have more to do with sixth-sense or intuition than with random discovery or playful digression. Serendipitously enough, I was led to think about serendipity by this recent MoFi thread about the weaknesses of the Internet as a means of intellectual exchange. In theory the Internet ought to be perfect for serendipity (all that information out there, just waiting to be picked up) but in practice it's not conducive to random discovery (you have to know where you're going before you set out, and you have to follow a link to get there). One of the delights of sites like Monkeyfilter (and its big blue brother) is that they are genuinely serendipitous: they awaken my interest in things I didn't even realise I wanted to know about. Oh, and did I mention it was Britain's favourite word?
  • I saw the beacon and here I am! No, I don't know of any other languages with such a word; in fact, I've seen foreigners refer to it as unique to English. (My English-Russian dictionary says, translated back into English, 'happy ability to make unexpected discoveries.') Nitpick: Just because Walpole first wrote the word down in a letter dated Jan. 28 doesn't mean he coined it that day, especially since he says "This discovery, indeed, is of that kind which I call Serendipity"—which implies he'd been calling it that for some time. At any rate, I'll have to read the book; I love Merton's On the Shoulders of Giants.