2022-04-11
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน - Set – F - fortunate & fortuitous
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Dictionary.com:
ออกเสียง fortunate = “|FAWR-chuh-nit”
ออกเสียง fortuitous = “fawr-TOO-i-tuhs” or “fawr-TYOO-i-tuhs”
Common Errors in English Usage Dictionary:
Fortuitous & fortunate
“Fortuitous” events happen by chance;
they need not be fortunate events, only random ones:
“It was purely fortuitous that the meter reader came along five minutes before I returned to my car.”
Although fortunate events may be fortuitous,
when you mean “lucky,” use “fortunate."
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
fortunate & fortuitous
Choose the Right Synonym for fortunate
Lucky, Fortunate, Happy, Providential
mean meeting with unforeseen success.
Lucky stresses the agency of chance in bringing about a favorable result.
won because of a lucky bounce
Fortunate suggests being rewarded beyond one's deserts.
fortunate in my investments
Happy combines the implications of Lucky and Fortunate
with stress on being blessed.
a series of happy accidents
Providential more definitely implies the help
or intervention of a higher power.
a providential change in the weather
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Words at Play
Lucky 7: Words About Luck
You never know where the wheel of fortune will stop.
Fortuitous
Originally, fortuitous meant
"occurring by chance," as in
"Their fortuitous encounter on the train was
the beginning of a lifelong friendship."
The word derives from the Latin fortuitus,
a deriviative of fors, the noun meaning "chance" or "luck."
There is nothing specific about good fortune in this sense,
but the fact that fortuitous sounds like both fortunate and felicitous
(meaning "happily suited to an occasion")
likely caused a shift in meaning to something closer to fortunate
("bringing some unexpected good").
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Usage Notes
Can 'Fortuitous' Mean 'Fortunate'?
When it comes to correct usage, do you feel lucky?
Some usage rules have the power to annoy people
when the rule is not observed;
the adherents to this rule are annoyed when people
do not use the word in the way they think it should be used.
Other usage rules annoy the people who do not follow the rule;
the rule-breakers think that
people should not tell them how to use some word.
And a few manage to unite these two groups in anger;
both rule-followers and rule-breakers
find the conduct of their counterparts objectionable.
Fortuitous is an excellent example of this.
We offer two additional definitions for fortuitous:
“fortunate” or “coming or happening by a lucky chance,”
and while criticism of such use is not as widespread as it once was,
it still may be found in a number of usage guides and books on writing.
Fortuitous has been in English use for over 400 years now,
and initially (and for several hundred years following)
had a single meaning, which was “occurring by chance.”
This chance did not have to be lucky or fortunate in any way,
and something that was fortuitous could be unpleasant.
In the early 20th century people
began to use fortuitous in a new manner,
which is “happening by a happy chance”
(kind of an ‘accidental, but with
a soupçon of happiness thrown in’ sort of meaning).
Shortly after this the word began to be used
to simply mean “fortunate.”
Fortuitous and fortunate do share some of their origins;
both words may be traced back to the Latin fors, meaning “chance.”
It is thought that the initial similarity
in spelling that these two words share,
combined with the fact that fortuitous and felicitous (“pleasant, delightful”)
share an ending,
caused people to assign new meaning to fortuitous.
But if these new senses of the word were formed in error,
and a number of scolding language books
continue to assert that the “fortunate” meanings are wrong,
why is it that we define the word thusly?
The first reason is that ‘people getting things wrong’
is just one of the many ways that language changes;
if we were to refuse to enter
all the words which took on new meaning
by people mistaking them with some other word
our dictionary would be considerably smaller.
Another reason is that people have been using fortuitous
to mean both “happening by a lucky chance”
and “fortunate” for a number of decades now,
and these senses have become part of our language.
Our job is to record that language, and as evidence of
current use of fortuitous being used to mean
something other than “occurring by chance”
we can turn to The New York Times, a publication whose writers seem happily unconcerned by their own stylebook’s dictum on this word.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Choose the Right Synonym for fortuitous
Accidental, Fortuitous, Casual, Contingent
mean not amenable to planning or prediction.
Accidental stresses chance.
any resemblance to actual persons is entirely accidental
Fortuitous so strongly suggests chance that it often connotes entire absence of cause.
a series of fortuitous events
Casual stresses lack of real or apparent premeditation or intent.
a casual encounter with a stranger
Contingent suggests possibility of happening but stresses uncertainty and dependence on other future events for existence or occurrence.
the contingent effects of the proposed law
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Usage of Fortuitous
Sense 2a = (from a cost standpoint, the company's timing is fortuitous)
has been influenced in meaning by fortunate.
It has been in standard if not elevated use for some 70 years,
but is still disdained by some critics.
Sense 2b, = (coming or happening by a lucky chance)
a blend of senses 1 = (occurring by chance)
and 2a, is virtually unnoticed by the critics.
Sense 1 is the only sense commonly used in negative constructions.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Did you know?
For some 250 years, until the early part of the 20th century,
"fortuitous" meant one thing only: "happening by chance."
This was no accident; its Latin forebear, fortuitus,
derives from the same ancient root as the Latin word for "chance,"
which is "fors."
But the fact that "fortuitous"
sounds like a blend of "fortunate" and "felicitous"
(meaning "happily suited to an occasion")
may have been what ultimately led to a second meaning: "fortunate."
That use has been disparaged by critics, but it is now well established.
Perhaps the seeds of the newer sense
were planted by earlier writers
applying overtones of good fortune
to something that is a chance occurrence.
In fact, today we quite often apply "fortuitous"
to something that is a chance occurrence but has a favorable result.
Abused, Confused, & Misused Words by Mary Embree:
fortuitous
= happening by accident or chance:
A fortuitous meeting led eventually to marriage.
Not to be confused with:
fortunate
= bringing something good and unforeseen;
= lucky; providential:
A fortunate turn of events helped her find a new career.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language:
for·tu′i·tous·ly adv.
for·tu′i·tous·ness n.
Usage Note:
The traditional meaning of fortuitous
is "happening by chance, accidental."
Perhaps because many chance events are favorable
or because of the similarity of fortuitous to fortunate and felicitous,
fortuitous has acquired the meaning
"characterized by good fortune, lucky."
(Note that the word fortunate underwent a similar shift
in meaning centuries ago.)
In our 2005 survey, a solid majority of the Usage Panel accepted
the use of the word to mean "lucky."
Some 68 percent accepted the sentence
The photographer felt that it was very fortuitous that she was in place
to take the winning photo,
where the adverb very
rules out the possibility that the word might mean "accidental."
A similar percentage (67) accepted the sentence
The meeting proved fortuitous: I came away with a much better idea of my role,
where the verb prove makes the meaning "accidental" an unlikely fit.
This two-thirds majority stands in stark contrast to the 85 percent
that rejected this same sentence in 1967.
Nonetheless, writers should take care to avoid creating contexts
in which the meaning of the word is ambiguous.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary:
for•tu′i•tous•ly, adv.
for•tu′i•tous•ness, n.
usage:
fortuitous has developed in sense
from “happening by chance”
to “happening by lucky chance”
to simply “lucky.”
Some object to this last meaning,
insisting that fortuitous be kept to its original sense of “accidental.”
In modern standard use,
however, the word almost always carries the senses
both of chance and good luck.
fortuitous is infrequently used to mean “accidental”
without the suggestion of good luck,
and even less frequently to mean “lucky”
without a suggestion of accident or chance.
