serendipity

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Bring to mind forgotten word acquaintances with
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Thesaurus.
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The word of the day for January 12 is:

serendipity   \seh-run-DIP-uh-tee\   noun
     : the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or 
agreeable things not sought for;  also : an instance of this

Example sentence:
     The fact that the roadside restaurant we selected happened 
to be the best deal in town was the result of serendipity 
rather than careful planning.

Did you know?
     In the mid-1700s, English author Horace Walpole stumbled 
upon an interesting tidbit of information while researching a 
coat of arms. In a letter to his friend Horace Mann he 
wrote: "This discovery indeed is almost of that kind which I 
call Serendipity, a very expressive word, which as I have 
nothing better to tell you, I shall endeavor to explain to 
you: you will understand it better by the derivation than by the definition. I 
once read a silly fairy tale, called 'The Three Princes of Serendip': as their 
highnesses travelled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and 
sagacity, of things they were not in quest of...." Walpole's memory of the tale 
(which, as it turns out, was not quite accurate) 
gave "serendipity" the meaning it retains to this day.