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Examples
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Ergo: zemblanity, the opposite of serendipity, the faculty of making unhappy, unlucky and expected discoveries by design.
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Ergo: zemblanity, the opposite of serendipity, the faculty of making unhappy, unlucky and expected discoveries by design.
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Newton Scherl of Englewood, New Jersey, writes, “I have tried without success to find zemblanity in any of my dictionaries.”
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Newton Scherl of Englewood, New Jersey, writes, “I have tried without success to find zemblanity in any of my dictionaries.”
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From agathism (the doctrine that all things tend towards ultimate good) to zemblanity (the opposite of serendipity), he offers definitions, etymology and quotes.
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From agathism (the doctrine that all things tend towards ultimate good) to zemblanity (the opposite of serendipity), he offers definitions, etymology and quotes.
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Now this site of testing of non-nuclear explosives at a nuclear facility has given birth to zemblanity, the inexorable discovery of what we don’t want to know.
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A Times Book Review note about the novel Armadillo, by William Boyd, reads, “The novel’s hero … is undone by an outbreak of zemblanity, the opposite of serendipity, in the multicultural hubbub of Cool Britannia.”
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Now this site of testing of non-nuclear explosives at a nuclear facility has given birth to zemblanity, the inexorable discovery of what we don’t want to know.
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A Times Book Review note about the novel Armadillo, by William Boyd, reads, “The novel’s hero … is undone by an outbreak of zemblanity, the opposite of serendipity, in the multicultural hubbub of Cool Britannia.”
orarian commented on the word zemblanity
The opposite of serendipity, the faculty of making unhappy, unlucky and unexpected discoveries by design; the inexorable discovery of what we don't what to know. Word derived from Zembla, an barren, frigid Artic island -- Nova Zembla -- the site of a nuclear facility now used for testing non-nuclear explosives.
-Peter Bowler
May 5, 2008
rolig commented on the word zemblanity
The arctic island is actually called Novaya Zemlya, which in Russian simply means "New Land." "Nova Zembla" represents an older Dutch, and then English, mispronunciation. So "zemblanity" (a word I like, actually) was itself born of a mistake. How appropriate.
May 6, 2008
smeggo commented on the word zemblanity
What doesn't kill me makes me increasingly disappointed.
October 10, 2008
matthewsouther commented on the word zemblanity
To name the world's precipitous
affliction of humanity,
I find it serendipitous
to chance upon "zemblanity".
June 14, 2009
BamboozlePizzazz commented on the word zemblanity
Zemblanity. Plz add.
August 25, 2018