different between encounter vs serendipity

English

Alternative forms

• incounter (archaic)
• encountre, incountre (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English encountren, from rom Anglo-Norman encountrer, Old French encontrer (“to confront”), from encontre (“against, counter to”), from Late Latin incontr? (“in front of”) itself from Latin in (“in”) + contr? (“against”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /?n?ka?nt?/, /???ka?nt?/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?n?ka?nt?/, /???ka?nt?/
• Hyphenation: en?coun?ter
• Rhymes: -a?nt?(?)

Verb

encounter (third-person singular simple present encounters, present participle encountering, simple past and past participle encountered)

1. (transitive) To meet (someone) or find (something), especially unexpectedly.
2. (transitive) To confront (someone or something) face to face.
3. (transitive, intransitive) To engage in conflict, as with an enemy.

   Three armies encountered at Waterloo.

Synonyms

(meet unexpectedly): cross paths

Translations

Noun

encounter (plural encounters)

1. A meeting, especially one that is unplanned or unexpected.

   • That was Selwyn's first encounter with the Ruthvens. A short time afterward at the opera Gerald dragged him into a parterre to say something amiable to one of the amiable débutante Craig girls—and Selwyn found himself again facing Alixe.

   • 1995, Maija Kalin, Coping with problems of understanding: repair sequences in coversations between native and non-native speakers:

     As they have planned the encounters, they mostly have control over the time limits.

2. A hostile, often violent meeting; a confrontation, skirmish, or clash, as between combatants.
3. (sports) A match between two opposing sides.

Synonyms

• (hostile meeting): clash, confrontation, brush, skirmish

Derived terms

• close encounter
• encounter group

Translations

Anagrams

• encountre

English

Etymology

From Serendip (“variant of Serendib: Ceylon, Sri Lanka”) +? -ity. Coined by English writer and politician Horace Walpole in 1754 based on the Persian story of The Three Princes of Serendip, who (Walpole wrote to a friend) were “always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of”.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s?.??n.?d?.p?.ti/, /?s?.??n.?d?.p?.ti/

Noun

serendipity (countable and uncountable, plural serendipities)

1. A combination of events which have come together by chance to make a surprisingly good or wonderful outcome.

   Antonyms: Murphy's law, perfect storm

   • 1754, Horace Walpole, The Letters of Horace Walpole, vol. 2, Letter 90, To Sir Horace Mann, Arlington Street, Jan. 28, 1754. The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 2

     The most random serendipity brought the two of us together, and now, we are happily married! If I was just 15 seconds slower, I'd have never met her!

     This discovery, indeed, is almost of that kind which I call Serendipity, a very expressive word, which, as I have nothing better to tell you, I shall endeavour to explain to you: you will understand it better by the derivation than by the definition. I once read a silly fairy tale, called "The Three Princes of Serendip;" as their Highnesses travelled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of: for instance, one of them discovered that a mule blind of the right eye had travelled the same road lately, because the grass was eaten only on the left side, where it was worse than on the right – now do you understand Serendipity? One of the most remarkable instances of this accidental Sagacity, (for you must observe that no discovery of a thing you are looking for comes under this description,) was of my Lord Shaftsbury, who, happening to dine at Lord Chancellor Clarendon's, found out the marriage of the Duke of York and Mrs. Hyde, by the respect with which her mother treated her at table.
2. An unsought, unintended, and/or unexpected, but fortunate, discovery and/or learning experience that happens by accident.

   Synonyms: chance, luck; see also Thesaurus:luck

   • 2007, Erin McKean, speech at TED

     Serendipity is when you find things you weren't looking for because finding what you are looking for is so damn difficult.

Usage notes

Serendipity is sometimes used loosely as a synonym for luck; more careful usage, particularly in science, emphasizes specifically "finding something when looking for something else, thanks to an observant mind".

The term was virtually unknown until the 1870s, and gained currency in the early 20th century. It became popularized at mid-century, and is now widely used.

Derived terms

• serendipitous
• serendipitously

Translations

References

• Goodman, Leo A. Notes on the Etymology of Serendipity and Some Related Philological Observations, Modern Language Notes, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Vol. 76, No. 5 (May, 1961), pp. 454–457. (JSTOR)
• Merton, Robert K.; Barber, Elinor G. The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity: A Study in Historical Semantics and the Sociology of Science, Princeton University Press, December 2003, ?ISBN
• Remer, Theodore G., ed. Serendipity and the Three Princes, from the Peregrinaggio of 1557, University of Oklahoma Press, 1965. LCC 65-10112

Further reading

• serendipity on Wikipedia.Wikipedia