Kismet Has Arabic Roots

Is it your fate to tie macramé while drinking coffee and eating sherbet in a minaret? That would be an unusual destiny, but if it turns out to be your kismet, you will owe much to Turkish and Arabic. We borrowed kismet from Turkish in the 1800s, but it ultimately derives from the Arabic qisma, meaning "portion" or "lot." Several other terms in our bizarre opening question (namely, macramé, coffee, sherbet, and minaret) have roots in those languages too. In the case of macramé and minaret, there is a little French influence as well. Coffee and macramé also have Italian relations, and sherbet has an ancestor in a Persian name for a type of cold drink.

Examples of kismet in a Sentence

he always said that it was kismet that they met at a showing of their favorite movie

Recent Examples on the Web Luckily, grace wasn’t exactly a character trait for Mia Thermopolis, so the would-be embarrassing moment turned out to be cinematic kismet. — Emily Tannenbaum, Glamour, 29 July 2021 Named for their skin colour and shapely bodies, Caramel Curves found being the latest ambassadors for Savage x Fenty a kismet pairing. — Hanna Phifer, refinery29.com, 20 Aug. 2021 Luckily, grace wasn’t exactly a character trait for Mia Thermopolis, so the would-be embarrassing moment turned out to be cinematic kismet. — Emily Tannenbaum, Glamour, 29 July 2021 Luckily, grace wasn’t exactly a character trait for Mia Thermopolis, so the would-be embarrassing moment turned out to be cinematic kismet. — Emily Tannenbaum, Glamour, 29 July 2021 Luckily, grace wasn’t exactly a character trait for Mia Thermopolis, so the would-be embarrassing moment turned out to be cinematic kismet. — Emily Tannenbaum, Glamour, 29 July 2021 Even more kismet was that the Loewe show was due to come out on March 5th, the same day that Steel’s book was published. — Liana Satenstein, Vogue, 5 Mar. 2021 This kismet, along with Hearst’s dedication to promoting environmental responsibility in the fashion industry, put her at the top of the list of contenders. — Barry Samaha, Harper's BAZAAR, 7 Dec. 2020 Replicating the kismet of chance encounters and meaningful glances is tech's next challenge. — Steven Levy, Wired, 18 June 2020 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'kismet.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.