fortune

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈfɔː.tʃuːn/, /ˈfɔː.tʃən/, US /ˈfɔːr.tʃən/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French fortune (“lot, good fortune, misfortune”),^[2][3][4] a learned borrowing of Latin fortūna (“chance, fate, good luck”),^[2][3][5] also personified as the goddess Fortuna,^[6][7] from fors (“chance, luck”) (genitive fortis).^[2][3][5] The Latin may be related to ferre (“to carry”), from PIE Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry”), as “that which is brought”;^[2][3][4] de Vaan accepts this, though Ernout and Meillet do not.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Chance or luck as a force in human affairs: before 1300 in the OED,^[8] about 1300 in Etymonline,^[3] and before 1325 in Cursor Mundi, personified as Dame Fortune, in Barnhart.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The chance or lot that falls to someone in life is from about 1374,^[8] and a chance event or adventure from about 1350.^[8] The goddess and her wheel stood for the ups and downs of life.^[3] Wealth, a large estate, is first found in Spenser, probably from one's condition or standing in life, then one's position as determined by wealth, and then wealth itself;^[3][5] Hoad dates the sense to the 16th century.^[5] Fortune favours the brave is in English from the late 14th century and goes back to Virgil's “audentes fortuna iuvat”.^[7] A soldier of fortune is attested by the 1660s, and a fortune-hunter, one who seeks to marry for money, from the 1680s.^[3] The Fortune 500, the list of the most profitable American companies in Fortune magazine, dates from 1955.^[3] Fortunate is from before 1387, in Trevisa.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1300 – chance, luck.^[8]
• c. 1350 – a chance event.^[8]
• c. 1374 – one's lot in life.^[8]
• before 1387 – fortunate.^[2]
• late 16th century – wealth, in Spenser.^[3][5]
• 1660s – soldier of fortune.^[3]
• 1955 – Fortune 500.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A large amount of money or property; great wealth.
2. Chance or luck, especially seen as a power affecting human affairs.
3. (often fortunes) The good or bad things that happen to a person or undertaking.
4. A person's destiny or future, as told by a fortune-teller.

Verb

1. (archaic) To give wealth to; to happen by chance.

Word family

• fortuneless
• fortunate
• fortune-teller
• unfortunate
• fortune cookie
• fortune hunter
• soldier of fortune
• wheel of fortune

Related words

• fortuitous
• fortuity
• misfortune
• bear

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press