Etymologically
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fortune

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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
  • 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