Antedating of "Serendipitous"

[Fred Shapiro]

serendipitous (OED 1958)

1951 _Public Opinion Quarterly_ XV. 161 (JSTOR)  The volume [_Continuities
in Social Research_ by Robert K. Merton and Paul F. Lazarsfeld] ... is, in
a sense, an extension of Merton's earlier remarks _vis a vis_
serendipitous research.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
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