The etymological origin of the fortuitous term that concerns us now is found in Latin. Specifically, we can establish that it derives from "fortuitus", which is the result of the sum of two lexical components of said language:
-The noun "fortuna", which can be translated as "luck".
-The suffix «-ito», which is used as a diminutive.
The notion refers to that which occurs casually or accidentally . The fortuitous, therefore, is linked to fortune (in the sense of being a series of facts or events that are generated unexpectedly).
For example: "Last night there was a chance meeting between the president and the opposition leader in a downtown restaurant," "Success in this profession is never chance: it is due to effort and study," "Thanks to a chance find, a archaeologist discovered the remains of a pre-Columbian city in Central America .
Among the synonyms of fortuitous we can highlight words such as unexpected, eventual, unforeseen or transitory, for example. On the contrary, among its antonyms are terms such as foreseen, thought, planned, organized...
The idea of a fortuitous event is used in the field of law to refer to an event that occurs by chance that generates some type of damage. Given its origin, it is not possible to attribute its effect to any particular person.
A fortuitous event, in this way, exempts individuals from compliance with certain obligations, because it is considered that the event could not be foreseen and, for that reason, could not be avoided. The fortuitous event is usually caused by an internal matter that was unknown to the subject.
Suppose a man driving a car causes an accident due to a mechanical failure of his vehicle. If this person had all the documentation in order, the cause of said failure was unknown and the defect appeared suddenly, it can be said that it is a fortuitous case. The driver had no way of foreseeing what was going to happen.
Unlike a fortuitous event, the event of force majeure not only cannot be foreseen, but is also inevitable. These cases of force majeure are caused by an external agent, such as a natural phenomenon .
Within the field of medicine, the fortuitous term that concerns us now is also used. Specifically, we talk about accidental birth, which is the birth of a baby that occurs unexpectedly and spontaneously without conditions that are optimal for either the baby or its mother. It is interesting to know that more than half of the children who come into the world in this way manage to survive and move forward, however, many of them will have to spend their first days and weeks in the neonatal intensive care units of hospitals. .
In the field of culture, the word fortuitous has also been used on numerous occasions to give titles to certain works. This would be the case, for example, of the novel "Fortuitous Slip", which is written by Anne Gracie and is framed within the romantic genre. Specifically, it is the fourth part of the "Dark Riders" saga.