The captivating history behind serendipity reveals it's not merely a stroke of luck. But here's where it gets intriguing...
Since its 18th-century inception, the term "serendipity" has been employed to describe a myriad of scientific and technological breakthroughs, including penicillin, the microwave oven, and Velcro. (We'll delve into these examples below.)
This whimsical word has also inspired countless poems, songs, and books, all celebrating remarkable coincidences and eureka moments. And let's not forget the 2001 romantic comedy that bore its name, starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale as strangers who serendipitously meet and reconnect.
Merriam-Webster defines "serendipity" as "the ability to find valuable or agreeable things not sought for" or "luck that takes the form of such finding." While the term is often associated with good fortune or happy accidents, its origin hints at something more profound. Some researchers argue that serendipity can be cultivated through skill, and that opportunities for serendipitous moments are more prevalent than we realize.
In this week's installment of NPR's Word of the Week, we explore the roots of serendipity, its historical impact, and practical tips for embracing it in our own lives.
The curious journey of serendipity
Despite serendipity's focus on the unexpected, its origins are surprisingly well-defined. Colin Gorrie, a language scholar who has studied the term's history, notes that "serendipity" was coined by English politician and writer Horace Walpole in a letter dated January 28, 1754.
Walpole is renowned for writing the first gothic novel, "The Castle of Otranto," but he was also a prolific inventor of English words, including "souvenir" and "nuance," as well as less common terms like "balloonomania" (an 18th-century fascination with hot air balloons) and "robberaceously" (a robber-like manner).
Walpole drew inspiration from the Persian fairy tale, "The Three Princes of Serendip" (Serendip is a historical name for Sri Lanka). In the tale, the princes "were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of." As an example, Walpole recalled how the princes noticed that a mule was blind in its right eye because only the grass on the left side of the road had been eaten.
"Now do you understand Serendipity?" Walpole wrote. "One of the most remarkable instances of this accidental sagacity."
According to Gorrie, the story had traveled far and been translated multiple times before reaching Walpole in London. "I definitely think it's a classic instance of serendipity itself," he said. "The transmission of this folktale, as far as I can tell from my research, it came into English from French, and it came into French from Italian, and it came into Italian from Persian. And then beyond that, it probably had oral precedents."
The skills behind serendipity
Over time, the definition of "serendipity" has expanded slightly. Gorrie explains, "I think often now people will use it in a bit more of a generic sense to mean a positive thing that happened by chance. It's the same basic meaning, but it's less about finding and more about happening."
However, Sanda Erdelez, a professor at the School of Library and Information Science at Simmons University, takes a slightly different view. "What matters is not just chance, but how people recognize this opportunity and then how they act on that opportunity," she said. "There is actually an element of human agency in it."
Erdelez's research focuses on how people stumble upon information that is important to them, either unexpectedly or when they are not actively seeking it. She calls these individuals "super-encounterers." "These are people who have a high level of curiosity," she said. "[They] have either a number of hobbies or interest areas so they can see connections between various things."
Erdelez adds that super-encounterers are adept at noticing, a skill that played a pivotal role in many famous instances of serendipity. For instance, in 1928, Scottish microbiologist Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin after examining the mold that had accidentally grown in one of his petri dishes. In 1941, Swiss engineer Georges de Mestral conceived the hook-and-loop mechanism behind Velcro after observing how a specific plant adhered to his dog's fur during a walk in the woods. And in 1945, American inventor Percy Spencer developed the microwave oven after realizing that a candy bar in his pocket began to melt near a magnetron.
Erdelez cites Velcro as her favorite example of serendipity, as it showcases another trait of super-encounterers: the willingness to "stop and smell the roses." "That's why I take the long way to my meetings," she said. "I give myself time to scan the posters pinned to the bulletin boards along my route."
For those seeking serendipitous moments, Erdelez advises carving out time from a busy schedule to give chance a fighting chance. "Leaving some empty space around you rather than having everything timed and programmed, I feel is one of the great habits that allows noticing," she said.
