The Literature Network - ANY QUESTIONS: History behind a lovely word.(Features)

ANY QUESTIONS: History behind a lovely word.(Features)

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From: Coventry Evening Telegraph (England)
Date: 19991006
Author:Draper, Keith

WHAT are the origins of the wonderful word serendipity?

THE word was coined in 1754 by Horace Walpole after The Three Princes of Serendip, the old name of Sri Lanka formerly known as Ceylon.

It was a fairy tale of travel, adventure and romance whose heroes, said Walpole, possessed the faculty of serendipity - the faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.

Horace Walpole (1717-1797), the fourth Earl of Orford, was a wit, social arbiter, connoisseur, antiquarian, publisher, and art critic as well as being an author.

He distinguished himself in most of ...

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