4 November 2017
fortuitous
[fawr-too-i-tuh s, -tyoo-]
adjective
1. happening or produced by chance; accidental:
a fortuitous encounter.
2. lucky; fortunate:
a series of fortuitous events that advanced her career.
Origin of fortuitous
Latin
1645-1655; < Latin fortuitus, fortuītus, equivalent to fortu- (u-stem base, otherwise unattested, akin to fors, genitive fortis chance, luck) + -itus, -ītus adj. suffix (for formation cf. gratuitous ); see -ous
Related forms
fortuitously, adverb
fortuitousness, noun
nonfortuitous, adjective
nonfortuitously, adverb
nonfortuitousness, noun
Can be confused
felicitous, fortuitous, fortunate (see usage note at the current entry)
Synonyms
1. incidental.
Usage note
Fortuitous has developed in sense from “happening by chance” to “happening by lucky chance” to simply “lucky, fortunate.” This development was probably influenced by the similarity of fortuitous to fortunate and perhaps to felicitous : A fortuitous late-night snowfall made for a day of great skiing.
Many object to the use of fortuitous to mean simply “fortunate” and insist that it should be limited to its original sense of “accidental.” In modern standard use, however, fortuitous almost always carries the senses both of accident or chance and luck or fortune. It is infrequently used in its sense of “accidental” without the suggestion of good luck, and even less frequently in the sense “lucky” without at least a suggestion of accident or chance: A fortuitous encounter with a former schoolmate led to a new and successful career for the artist.
Dictionary.com
Examples from the Web for fortuitous
Contemporary Examples
“It was a fortuitous discovery,” Bruenn told The Daily Beast last week.
Ebola’s Roots Are 50 Times Older Than Mankind. And That Could Be the Key to Stopping It.
Michael Daly
October 19, 2014
But all kinds of fortuitous circumstances—important people “seeing that”—led him to getting cast in Inside Llewyn Davis.
‘Inside Llewyn Davis’ Star Oscar Isaac Is About to Be a Very Big Deal
Kevin Fallon
December 4, 2013
All of which is why the juxtaposition of these two cases is fortuitous.
Mumbai Massacre Perpetrator’s Sentence Affirmed
Dilip D’Souza
September 2, 2012
And 1968 was a fortuitous year to become European Champions: it was the year that defined an age.
A Manchester United Fan Defends His Faith
Peter Pomerantsev
May 25, 2011
It was a fortuitous decision, because the plaza’s roof happened to be crammed with several hundred refugees.
The Extinction Parade: An Original Zombie Story by Max Brooks
Max Brooks
January 13, 2011
Historical Examples
Nor would the treasure ever have been found but for a most fortuitous accident.
Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates
Howard Pyle
Invention was no longer the fortuitous result of a happy chance.
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice
Stephen Leacock
This was not the proportion that there should have been if the mortality had been fortuitous.
The Outline of Science, Vol. 1 (of 4)
J. Arthur Thomson
Yet we find a few fortuitous circumstances that favored his evolution.
Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great – Volume 14
Elbert Hubbard
There are difficulties as to minute modifications, even if not fortuitous.
On the Genesis of Species
St. George Mivart
Anagram
furious tot
tofu suitor
our outfits
if tortuous
Today’s quote
Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired.
– Jules Renard
On this day
4 November 1926 – British archeologist, Howard Carter, discovers steps leading to the tomb of the Pharoah Tutankhamen.
4 November 1979 – Students loyal to the Ayatollah Khomeini over-run the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and take 90 Americans hostage in protest against the former Shah of Iran being allowed into the U.S. for medical treatment. The hostages were held for 14 months and released after the U.S. government promised $5 billion in foreign aid and unfroze $3 billion of Iranian funds. During the crisis, President Jimmy Carter attempted an unsuccessful rescue mission by helicopter, which ended in the deaths of 8 U.S. marines.
4 November 1995 – assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. The assassin was Yigal Amir, an Israeli right-wing Zionist, who opposed the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords in which Rabin had negotiated a peace plan with the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.