Taking Serendipity to mean an unexpected, fortuitous outcome arising as a result of the confluence of a number of unlikely chance factors.
Is there a specific, precise* antonym? That is a word describing that occasion when unlikely chance factors seem to conspire to produce unexpected, undesirable outcomes?
*I’m not looking for general terms like ‘bad luck’, or wordy descriptors like ‘A Series of Unfortunate Incidents’, or lame contributions like ‘hah, my life’.
“zemblanity”
irony?
Good question - it seems like there should be.
Going to a thesaurus for synonyms to coincidence (that is, fortuity without the positive connotation) just has bland kind-of antonyms that are unsatisfactory:
accident
misfortune
calamity
mishap
None of them capture the coming together of unlikely, seemingly fated, events. Maybe you need to coin a word - “Jobity” or MacBethness" or something.
Murphy’s law.
or misadventure
Adding a piece to this puzzle, Serendip is a former name of Sri Lanka and precedes Ceylon as a name for that island.
Serendipity is a word coined by Horace Walpole who formed it on the title of the fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip to signify the faculty of making happy discoveries by accident, which these princes possessed.
Personally I think if you are going to coin a word you should give some thought to a suitable antonym.
I had to go back to a thread I posted to, and check if I had posted using serendipity. I had added a line about serendipity and the source of the word, but then cut out the line. I find that uncanny. :eek:
Is there a catchy phrase to made from “600 miles SW of Santiago, Chile?”
Would exact antonym mean that it was the opposite of accidental, too?
When I saw the OP, I immediately came up with “Malice Aforethought”
How about “determinism”?
To drive your hijack even further, see here for all the antipodes. There’s amazingly little overlap, though.
Perhaps, but I’m looking for something that is opposite in effect, not cause. I suppose I should have said concise and explicit, rather than precise.
I initially thought “maleficence,” but that implies intention.
It’s not “backfire,” as in “My evil plan backfired.”
Nor is it “No good dead goes unpunished.”
It’s not the concept of “putting out the fire with gasoline,” because that implies a well-intentioned-but-stupid mistake.
Maybe the idea of something blowing up in one’s face…
Well, I’ve helped a whole helluva lot, haven’t I? :dubious:
Perhaps we could distill something out of the Shakespearean “hoist on one’s own petard”?
Petardily?
Another vote for Murphy’s Law.
I believe the word you may be looking for is vicissitudes.
vicissitudes: a change of circumstance or fortune, typically one that is unwelcome or unpleasant.
Regards
Harvey
Even better, using Google Maps is http://www.antipodemap.com. Looks like “Galapagosity” might be a candidate, but it’s still about 1000 km off.
Star-crossed?
