来自波斯童话故事《斯里兰卡三王子：The Three Princes of Serendip》，讲述了古斯里兰卡 的三个王子好运不断， 机缘巧合的奇妙故事。来自 Serendip,斯里兰卡古称，来自梵语 Simhaladvipa,狮子岛，来自 simhah,狮子，词源同 Singapore,新加坡，字面意思为狮子城，dvipa, 岛屿，词源同 Maldives,马尔代夫。
英文词源
serendipity
serendipity: [18] Serendipity – the ‘faculty of making lucky discoveries’ – was coined in 1754 by the British writer Horace Walpole (1717–97). He took it from The Three Princes of Serendip, the title of a fairy tale whose leading characters, in Walpole’s words, ‘were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of’. (Serendip is an old name for Sri Lanka.)
serendipity (n.)
1754 (but rare before 20c.), coined by Horace Walpole (1717-92) in a letter to Horace Mann (dated Jan. 28); he said he formed it from the Persian fairy tale "The Three Princes of Serendip," whose heroes "were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of." The name is from Serendip, an old name for Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka), from Arabic Sarandib, from Sanskrit Simhaladvipa "Dwelling-Place-of-Lions Island."