What Is Luck?

by Ellie Loconte

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Everyone knows the great feeling of being lucky. Whether it’s being on a hot streak when playing slots, having a great day where everything goes perfectly, or beating traffic on the way to work. But where does luck come from?

 

The word “luck” originates from the early Middle Dutch word “luc,” which is a shortening of “gheluc” – meaning both happiness and good fortune.

 

The common individual knows what luck is, but how do you define luck? Let alone, who coined the term?

 

Definitions of luck can vary from one person to another depending on one’s opinion and views, but the author of Luck: The Brilliant Randomness of Everyday Life, Nicholas Rescher, describes the term as such: “luck accordingly involves three things: (1) a beneficiary or maleficiary, (2) a development that is benign (positive) or malign (negative) from the standpoint of the interests of the affected individual, and that, moreover, (3) is fortuitous (unexpected, chancy, unforeseeable.)” Luck can come in many forms- big occurrences of luck, and little occurrences of luck- but overall, the term boils down to the same definition and meaning.

 

Now that we have developed a good understanding of luck, let’s get into where luck was first mentioned in all the days of human existence itself.

 

Well, here’s some bad news: No singular person in history has been given the credit of thinking up the word themselves. From this, we can infer that maybe luck has always been around, but we may not have always had a word associated with the feeling until later in history. When exactly in history the word was associated with the feeling, however, is unknown. Although, there would be no good luck without bad luck.

 

People become very superstitious when it comes to avoid being cursed with bad luck, and associate doing specific things to attracting bad energy and luck. For instance, here are just a few things people tend to avoid doing out of superstition:

  • Breaking a mirror
  • Opening an umbrella inside
  • Walking under a ladder
  • Spilling salt without throwing it over your left shoulder
  • Stepping on a crack to avoid breaking your mothers back

 

You personally may not believe in these silly little superstitions, but for some people they wouldn’t dare even thinking about doing the things on the aforementioned list.

 

Whether you feel like ‘luck’ is on your side, or consider yourself to have no luck whatsoever; if you are a superstitious person or feel unaffected by superstitions altogether – it’s always a good idea to put your luck to the test on a slot machine at one of our Gold Rush Gaming locations!

 

-The Gold Rush Gaming Family

 

References:

Etymonline.com. 2022. luck | Etymology, origin and meaning of luck by etymonline. [online] Available at: <https://www.etymonline.com/word/luck> [Accessed 15 April 2022].

Rescher, N., 2001. Luck. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press, p.32.