fortunate

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fortunatus.

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈfɔːt͡ʃənɪt/, /ˈfɔːt͡ʃənət/
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈfɔɹt͡ʃənɪt/, /ˈfɔɹt͡ʃnɪt/
    • Audio (US)(file)
  • (General American, weak-vowel merger) IPA(key): [ˈfoɹt͡ʃənətʰ], [ˈfoɹt͡ʃnətʰ]
  • Hyphenation: for‧tu‧nate

Adjective

fortunate (comparative more fortunate, superlative most fortunate)

  1. Auspicious.
    It is a fortunate sign if the sun shines on a newly wedded couple.
    • 1854, Edward Stanley, A Familiar History of Birds : Their Nature, Habits and Instincts‎, page 144:
      if it sits still, with its breast towards them, till they have passed, they consider it as a fortunate sign, and everything is expected to go on well during the remainder of their journey
  2. Happening by good luck or favorable chance.
    Patrick was the unlikely match-winner as Berkeley earned a fortunate victory over Chisolm.
    • 2011, George G. Szpiro, Pricing the Future: Finance, Physics, and the 300-year Journey to the Black-Scholes Equation‎:
      How many lucky winners, Regnault lamented, boastfully ascribe their success to wise decisions while in reality their triumph was nothing more than the fortunate outcome of random events?
    • 2018 July 11, “How Nina Weiner turns dreams into a reality”, in The Jerusalem Post:
      Weiner acknowledges that a stroke of good luck has helped steer her to a more fortunate path early on in life.
  3. Favored by fortune.
    We were fortunate not to be fined for speeding.
    This is a time when we think of those less fortunate than ourselves.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Derived terms

Translations
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Translations to be checked

See also

References

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for fortunate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.)

Italian

Adjective

fortunate

  1. feminine plural of fortunato

Latin

Etymology

From fortūnātus (“fortunate, prosperous”)

Adverb

fortūnātē (comparative fortūnātius, superlative fortūnātissimē)

  1. prosperously, fortunately

References
  • fortunate in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • fortunate in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
  • fortunate in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette
  • Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, 1st edition. (Oxford University Press)
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