Wahrscheinlich war es Horace Walpole (1717-1797), der in einem Brief vom 28. Januar 1754 an Horace Mann, das Wort ‘serendipity’ zum ersten Mal formulierte.
„This discovery I made by a talisman, which Mr Chute calls the sortes Walpolianae, by which I find everything I want, à pointe nommée [at the very moment], wherever I dip for it. This discovery, indeed, is almost of that kind which I call Serendipity, a very expressive word, which, as I have nothing better to tell you, I shall endeavour to explain to you: you will understand it better by the derivation than by the definition. I once read a silly fairy tale, call The Three Princes of Serendip: as their highnesses travelled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of: for instance, one of them discovered that a mule blind of the right eye had travelled the same road lately, because the grass was eaten only on the left side, where it was worse than on the right – now do you understand Serendipity? One of the most remarkable instances of this accidental sagacity (you must observe that no discovery of a thing you are looking for comes under this description) was of my Lord Shaftsbury, who happening to dine at Lord Chancellor Clarendon’s , found out the marrage of the Duke of York and Mrs. Hyde, by the respect with which her mother treated her at table. “
Walpole, H.; 1954; Horace Walpole’s correspondence with Sir Horace Mann; New Haven, Conn; Yale University Press; in The Yale Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence, Vol. 17, W.S.Lewis, W.H. Smith, G.L. Lam (eds.)
Serendipity’s Call ist ein Blog von Johanna Vorholz. Sie übernimmt keinerlei Verantwortung für die geistigen Blähungen des glücklichen Zufalls, dessen verbale Manifestation sich in der Reihung von Wörtern in diesem virtuellen Notizbuch offenbart. Alle Beschwerden können als Kommentare eingestellt werden, deren Veröffentlichung, Anerkennung und Beantwortung jedoch ganzheitlich der despotischen Willkür der Autorin unterliegen. Frohes Kommunizieren!
