serendipity
I’m not sure how well known it is that the word serendipity comes from an alternate name for the country currently known as Sri Lanka and previously known as Ceylon. Persians and Arabs at one point called it Sarandib, and Horace Walpole coined serendipity in 1754 based on a Persian fairy tale in which questing heroes discover things that they were not actually looking for. And that makes for a cute story that’s notable enough on its own, but I’m actually more curious about the origins of Sarandib and its connection to more modern names for this place.
This is a matter that is probably easier to research if you’re able to read (and search online) in Persian, Arabic or Sinhalese, that last one being the name of the language spoken by people in Sri Lanka. So I’m going to have to bring in some sources that aren’t necessarily official, but they’re just what I’m able to turn up reading (and searching online) in English. According to this site, Sarandib is a mutation of the Sanskrit name Sinhaladvipa, literally “island of lions” and also the source of the word Sinhalese. This would seem to check out, based on the Wiktionary entries for the Sanskrit words सिंह (“simhá”) and द्वीप (“dvīpa”), both of which are associated with similar words in modern Hindi. Wiktionary says that Ceylon is, in fact, also related to the old Sanskrit name, that “L” getting in there in the Ancient Greek Seledíba and continuing into the Portguese Ceilão. Is it just the “lion” portion of Sinhaladvipa, then? I’m not sure. But I’m posting this here to see if anyone else knows one way or the other. Regardless, Sri Lanka apparently has a different origin, coming instead from the Sanskrit श्री लङ्का (śrī lankā, “holy island”). Get lost, you stupid lions!
I have no proof of this, but I am supposing that if the first two syllables in Sinhaladvipa could become Ceylon, the change to and “R” in Sarandib and serendipity could be the same kind of charge that happens a lot with “L” and “R” in when translating from one language to another, like with coriander and cilantro and like with the English pilgrim and miracle and their Spanish counterparts, peregrino and milagro. Again, I’d love to hear from someone who knows the languages better if this is wrong.