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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Letter from Spain: Hoping for serendipity | Letter from Spain: Hoping for serendipity |
| (30 days later) | |
| Recently I made a shocking discovery about the Spanish: they have no word for serendipity. Or at least not yet. | Recently I made a shocking discovery about the Spanish: they have no word for serendipity. Or at least not yet. |
| While the Spaniards have in chiripa a nifty noun that comes close – it refers to a "lucky break" – their dictionary still lacks a single term that does all the heavy lifting of our own serendipity. | While the Spaniards have in chiripa a nifty noun that comes close – it refers to a "lucky break" – their dictionary still lacks a single term that does all the heavy lifting of our own serendipity. |
| Except this is not quite true. Hop online and you find there is a word in Spanish very like serendipity: its serendipia. And we are not talking about some left-field term here. A Google search brings up 333,000 hits. | Except this is not quite true. Hop online and you find there is a word in Spanish very like serendipity: its serendipia. And we are not talking about some left-field term here. A Google search brings up 333,000 hits. |
| There is even a (Spanish) Wikipedia entry for the Spanish word that provides not only a definition – identical to ours – but also a full history of its use since Horace Walpole coined it in 1754. | There is even a (Spanish) Wikipedia entry for the Spanish word that provides not only a definition – identical to ours – but also a full history of its use since Horace Walpole coined it in 1754. |
| So what's going on? Is there a Spanish version of serendipity or not? Well, yes and no. Because it turns out that serendipia is currently in linguistic limbo while it awaits official approval from the Real Academia Española. | So what's going on? Is there a Spanish version of serendipity or not? Well, yes and no. Because it turns out that serendipia is currently in linguistic limbo while it awaits official approval from the Real Academia Española. |
| The RAE is the body charged with keeping the Spanish language in check in much the same way that the Académie française does for French. And until Spain's royal language academy pulls out its wax seal for serendipia, the word remains out in the cold. | The RAE is the body charged with keeping the Spanish language in check in much the same way that the Académie française does for French. And until Spain's royal language academy pulls out its wax seal for serendipia, the word remains out in the cold. |
| I only became aware of this when the RAE took the unprecedented step of holding their weekly meeting in public. The academy's members usually meet in camera in Madrid; recently, however, they honoured the bicentenary of the signing of Spain's key 1812 constitution by meeting in Cádiz and invited 250 guests. Much of the event was taken up with a discussion about who should fill the vacant seats on their committee. But there followed an ardent debate about which words had earned the honour of appearing in the academy dictionary. One of these was – you guessed it – serendipia. | I only became aware of this when the RAE took the unprecedented step of holding their weekly meeting in public. The academy's members usually meet in camera in Madrid; recently, however, they honoured the bicentenary of the signing of Spain's key 1812 constitution by meeting in Cádiz and invited 250 guests. Much of the event was taken up with a discussion about who should fill the vacant seats on their committee. But there followed an ardent debate about which words had earned the honour of appearing in the academy dictionary. One of these was – you guessed it – serendipia. |
| Several members of the RAE were plumping hard for our friend. Unfortunately, their colleagues were unable to decide on either the merits of the word or its exact meaning. The debate ended with the academy's director promising to "analyse the documentation". | Several members of the RAE were plumping hard for our friend. Unfortunately, their colleagues were unable to decide on either the merits of the word or its exact meaning. The debate ended with the academy's director promising to "analyse the documentation". |
| To think: without the internet, I would never have known that Spanish has no word for happy accidents. | To think: without the internet, I would never have known that Spanish has no word for happy accidents. |
| Let's hope serendipia gets official recognition soon. | Let's hope serendipia gets official recognition soon. |
| Every week Guardian Weekly publishes a Letter from one of its readers from around the world. We welcome submissions – they should focus on giving a clear sense of a place and its people. Please send them to weekly.letter.from@guardian.co.uk | Every week Guardian Weekly publishes a Letter from one of its readers from around the world. We welcome submissions – they should focus on giving a clear sense of a place and its people. Please send them to weekly.letter.from@guardian.co.uk |
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