
[Turkish, from Persian qismat, from Arabic qisma, lot, from qasama, to divide, allot.]
Physics and fate may not ordinarily be mentioned in the same breath, but a New York Times article on particle physicist Lisa Randall did it:
"Preferring to stay closer to testable reality, Dr. Randall was drawn to a bottom-up approach to theoretical physics, trying to build models that explain observed phenomena and hoping to discover principles with wider application. But Dr. Randall and string theory had their own kismet."
Link: On Gravity, Oreos and a Theory of Everything
Posted November 2, 2005.
See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words.
noun
It was pure kismet that Ester happen to look down into the man hole and into the eyes of her future husband.
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| Look up kismet in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
| Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Kismet. |
Kismet is a word, possibly derived from Turkish, Urdu or Persian, meaning fate or destiny, a predetermined course of events. The word likely evolved from Arabic ةسمة qisma, meaning lot, from ةسم qasama, to divide, allot. The word kismet is also used in Hindi, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Albanian, and in some dialects of Serbian as luck.
The first recorded use of the word in English was by Edward Backhouse Eastwick who used the word, spelled kismat, in his 1849 novel Dry Leaves from Young Egypt.
Kismet may also refer to:
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Dansk (Danish)
n. - kismet, den uafvendelige skæbne
Français (French)
n. - destin, sort, fortune
Deutsch (German)
n. - Kismet, Schicksal
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (θρησκ.) κισμέτ, μοίρα, πεπρωμένο
Português (Portuguese)
n. - destino (m), sorte (f)
Español (Spanish)
n. - destino
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - kismet, öde (islam)
中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
命运, 天命
中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 命運, 天命
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - アッラーの意志, 運命
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) النصيب, القدر
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - גורל, יעוד
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