a. [f. L. fortuīt-us, f. forte by chance, f. fors chance + -OUS.] That happens or is produced by fortune or chance; accidental, casual. Fortuitous concourse of atoms: see CONCOURSE 3. Fortuitous event (Law): see quot. 1856.
1653. H. More, Antid. Ath., III. xv. (1712), 135. To elude the force of this Argument against the fortuitous concourse of Atoms, they’l excogitate this mad evasion.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 293, 5 Feb., ¶ 4. The highest Degree of it [Wisdom] which Man can possess, is by no means equal to fortuitous Events, and to such Contingencies as may rise in the Prosecution of our Affairs.
1806. Fellowes, trans. Milton’s 2nd Def., Wks. (Bohn), I. 240. This extraordinary kindness, which I experience, cannot be any fortuitous combination.
1823. Scott, Peveril, Pref. Lett. Yours had the appearance of a fortuitous rencontre whereas mine was preceded by the communication of a large roll of papers, containing a new history, called PEVERIL OF THE PEAK.
1856. Bouvier, Law Dict., Fortuitous event. A term in the civil law to denote that which happens by a cause which cannot be resisted…. Or it is that which neither of the parties has occasioned or could prevent.
1865. Pall Mall G., 27 Oct., 6. The epithet he [Lord Palmerston] applied to the coalition of parties against him on the China question in 1857—‘a fortuitous concourse of atoms.’
1877. Sparrow, Serm., xviii. 241. It is a mighty alleviation of all this wrath and evil induced by sin, that its action is neither fortuitous nor necessitated, but is entirely under the governmental control of the great and good God.
absol. 1855. H. Spencer, Princ. Psychol., IV. ii. (1872), I. 408. The relations between the answering states of consciousness must similarly be of all grades, from the necessary to the fortuitous.
