Serendipity, Serendipitous

I've always liked that word, and don't get to use it very much, so I thought I'd throw it in here. Actually, though, it is appropriate. Here's the definition from Webster:

ser.en.dip.i.ty \-'dip-*t-e-\ n [fr. its possession by the heroes of the Per fairy tale The Three Princes of] Serendip : the gift of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for

I like words. Egregious is another excellent word. So is phthisically, as in "He coughed phthisically."

(You can look these up, if you're coming in from a computer on the MIT network, by looking in the online Oxford English Dictionary. A fun place to get lost if you're a word-fiend...)

Two other entertaining words:

aes.ti.val\'es-t*-v*l\ aj [ME estival, fr. MF or L; MF, fr. L aestivalis, fr. aestivus]of summer, fr. aestas summer - more at EDIFY : of or relating to the summer

ster.to.rous\-*-r*s\ aj : characterized by a harsh snoring or gasping sound - ster.to.rous.ly av - ster.to.rous.ness n

Both from a friend's old plan file. (Not there any more, I'm afraid.)

I have a fun script that a friend, Chris Vanharen, wrote ages ago that finds a random word in /usr/dict/words and then sends its webster definition to me in a zephyrgram as part of my login. Yep, it's geeky, but fun. If you want the script, just ask! (This is all assuming, of course, that you are using a UNIX-based computer which has /usr/dict/words, and have online access to some sort of dictionary, and have some sort of way to send yourself a message on login.)


Navigational Assistance:

Anne's Other Random Stuff page is sort of "up" from here...

Date last modified: 31-Mar-1999
Copyright 1999 Anne R. LaVin
This page's URL:
http://web.mit.edu/lavin/www/serendip.html