The word serendipity is very popular today, but only relatively recently did it enter the linguistic mainstream. In 1958, just as the term's use by scholars was beginning to expand but before it became widespread among other segments of society, the eminent sociologist Robert K. Merton and the historian Elinor Barber wrote a very detailed history of the word, which they never published. A few years after Barber's death and shortly before his own in February 2003, Merton sent their manuscript to press. Apart from a redivision of the chapters, he left their text unrevised as a "time capsule" and added a short preface and a more extensive afterword that discuss the context of the original work. As James L. Shulman notes in his introduction, although the book shows signs of its unfinished state―some parts could be expanded, while others might benefit from tightening―it is a fascinating text that captivates the reader from the start.
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机译：今天，“偶然性”一词很流行，但直到最近才进入语言主流。 1958年，正当学者对该术语的使用开始扩大，但在该术语在社会的其他阶层中普及之前，著名的社会学家Robert K. Merton和历史学家Elinor Barber写下了一个非常详细的单词历史，但从未出版过。 。理发师去世几年后，即2003年2月他去世前不久，默顿将手稿寄给了媒体。除了重新定义各章外，他还保留了未经修改的文本作为“时间胶囊”，并添加了简短的序言和更广泛的后缀，以讨论原始工作的内容。正如詹姆斯·舒尔曼（James L.Shulman）在介绍中所指出的那样，尽管该书显示出其未完成状态的迹象-有些部分可以扩展，而另一些部分可能会从收紧中受益-这是一本引人入胜的迷人文章，从一开始就吸引了读者。
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