Where It Comes From
Fortuitous comes from Latin fortuitus, "happening by chance," which traces back to forte — the ablative form of fors, the Latin word for "chance" or "luck" (and a cousin of fortuna, as in "fortune"). English picked it up in the 1650s, and for the next 400 years or so, it meant exactly what its Latin root said: random, undesigned, accidental — with zero opinion about whether the outcome was good or bad. A fortuitous car crash was, grammatically, just as valid a phrase as a fortuitous windfall.
That started changing in the 20th century, as people leaned on "fortuitous" specifically for the chance events that turned out well — likely nudged along by its resemblance to "fortunate" and "felicitous." Usage guides have been grumbling about the drift for decades, but it's stuck around so persistently that most dictionaries now quietly list "lucky" as an accepted second meaning, right alongside the original.
Say It Around the World
Spanish and French inherited the word almost letter-for-letter straight from Latin fortuitus — true cognates, easy to spot. German went its own way entirely: zufällig comes from the native verb zufallen, "to fall to" or "to happen upon," so instead of borrowing Rome's word for chance, German built its own out of the image of something simply falling into place.
The next word isn't about chance at all — it's about the quiet, stubborn kind of strength that shows up long after luck runs out. No fancy footwork, no fortunate timing. Just staying in it.