Annoying words and phrasesMarketing bollocks, buzzword bingo, or your mum saying "fudge" when she really wants to swear like a trooper. Let's ride the hockey stick curve of this top hat product, solutioneers.
Thanks to simbosan for the idea
(
Scaryduck LIKES EGG, Thu 8 Apr 2010, 13:13)
« Go Back
Fortuitous.Fortuitous is not another way of saying fortunate. Fortuitous means by accident or by chance. Things can be fortuitous and bad.
(, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 22:50, 3 replies)
I agree on the misuse of the word.However, considering the root of the word (Latin root, from Fortune) then I would consider the word to have a more positive spin, so in my eyes it can't be fortuitous and bad.
(
jim_bob can herd cats., Mon 12 Apr 2010, 23:10,
closed)
From my trusty copy of Chambers:fortuitous, adjective:
1. Happening by chance
2. Fortunate
[edit] The compact Oxford says the same thing, if that's more to your taste.
(
Legionary - My god, Brian, there's a message in my alphabets, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 10:24,
closed)
It's certainly come to mean fortunate nowBut the roots are not the same. Fortune is from fortunare which means, unsurprisingly, good luck. Fortuitous, on the other hand is from Latin fortuitus, from forte, by chance, ablative of fors, chance.
I would agree that it usually implies a positive spin now but this is not implied in either etymology or original usage.
(, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 16:53, closed)
« Go Back