Fortuities

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An occurrence that happens by chance or accident, often with significant impact
2. A fortunate event that arises unexpectedly, leading to favorable outcomes
3. The manifestation of luck or serendipity, resulting in unforeseen advantages or occurrences

Etymology: "Fortuities" is the plural of "fortuity," which came into English in the early 1600s from the French "fortuité," itself from the Latin "fortuitus," meaning "accidental" or "happening by chance." The Latin adjective was built from "fors," "chance" or "luck," the same root that gives English "fortune." So the word's core idea was always that of something arriving by chance rather than design, and the connection to luck is built into its ancestry. Notably, "fortuitous" and "fortuity" are not quite the same kind of word: the adjective "fortuitous" sometimes gets used loosely to mean "lucky," but its older and stricter sense is simply "accidental," with no implication that the outcome is good. The noun "fortuity" follows the same logic, naming an accident or chance event. The sense of a pleasant, advantageous surprise is a later shading that grew up around the word through ordinary usage rather than through any change in its Latin meaning.

Synonyms: coincidences, accidents