Etymology

fortunate

for·tu·nate
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Today it means: Auspicious. Full definition →

Middle English fortunat(e) ← Latin fortūnātus
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromfortūnātus
  2. Middle English · inherited fromfortunat(e)“fortunate”
  3. English todayfortunate

From Middle English fortunat(e) (“fortunate”), from Latin fortūnātus, from fortūna (“fortune, luck”) + -ātus (adjective-forming suffix), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix). See also Middle English fortunaten (“to assure the success (of), make fortunate”); cognate with French fortuné (“lucky”). By surface analysis, fortune + -ate.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.