Serendipity: coined by Horace Walpole (1717-92) in a letter to Horace Mann; he said he formed it from the Persian fairy tale “The Three Princes of Serendip,” whose heroes “were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of.” The name is from Serendip, an old name for Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka), from Arabic Sarandib(the place where Adam fell from the Heaven to), from Sanskrit Simhaladvipa “Dwelling-Place-of-Lions Island.”