fortunate

Borrowed from Latin fortunatus.

Morphologically fortune +‎ -ate.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɔː.t͡ʃə.nɪt/, /ˈfɔː.t͡ʃə.nət/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfɔɹ.t͡ʃə.nɪt/, /ˈfɔɹt͡ʃ.nɪt/
• (General American, weak-vowel merger) IPA^(key): /ˈfɔɹ.t͡ʃə.nət/, /ˈfɔɹt͡ʃ.nət/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: for‧tu‧nate

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.

• (auspicious): rosy; see also Thesaurus:auspicious
• (happening by favorable chance): lucky; see also Thesaurus:lucky
• (favored by fortune): privileged, successful; see also Thesaurus:prosperous

• unlucky
• unfortunate

• unfortunately
• fortunately

• unluckily
• luckily

• “fortunate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “fortunate”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

fortunate

1. feminine plural of fortunato

From fortūnātus (“fortunate, prosperous”).

fortūnātē (comparative fortūnātius, superlative fortūnātissimē)

1. prosperously, fortunately

• fortūnātus
• fortūnō

• “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)