Luck

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /lʌk/

Definitions

1. A force that causes good or bad things to happen by chance rather than through one's own actions
2. A system of chance that influences outcomes in a positive or negative manner, independent of personal effort or control
3. The phenomenon where unexpected events yield favorable or unfavorable results, not based on individual merit or action

Etymology: Long before "luck" meant a chance outcome, its Middle Dutch and Middle Low German ancestors meant "good fortune" and "lot," and the word may have begun as a gambling term in England in the 15th century. Its earliest recorded uses appear in the 12th century, apparently in Rhine Frankish, and it spread into standard Middle High German in the 13th century before reaching English and the Scandinavian languages in the Late Middle Ages. The deeper origin is uncertain. One proposal links it to a Frankish form meaning "opening," from a Proto-Germanic root for an opening, which would connect it to the German "Lücke" ("gap"). The idea is that a gap or opportunity became a chance, and a chance became fortune. Scholars have offered many other derivations, and none is settled. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests a possible relation to "lock," though this too remains unproven. The English verb "lukken," meaning "to chance" or "to happen by good fortune," existed in the 15th century, but the verb "to luck out" did not appear in American English until the 1940s.

Synonyms: fortune, chance, fate, serendipity, destiny

Antonyms: misfortune, bad luck, failure