What is "fortune"

Fortune \For"tune\ (f[^o]r"t[-u]n; 135), n. [F. fortune, L. fortuna; akin to fors, fortis, chance, prob. fr. ferre to bear, bring. See Bear to support, and cf. Fortuitous.]

1. The arrival of something in a sudden or unexpected manner; chance; accident; luck; hap; also, the personified or deified power regarded as determining human success, apportioning happiness and unhappiness, and distributing arbitrarily or fortuitously the lots of life.

   'T is more by fortune, lady, than by merit.
   --Shak.

   O Fortune, Fortune, all men call thee fickle.
   --Shak.

2. That which befalls or is to befall one; lot in life, or event in any particular undertaking; fate; destiny; as, to tell one's fortune.

   You, who men's fortunes in their faces read.
   --Cowley.

3. That which comes as the result of an undertaking or of a course of action; good or ill success; especially, favorable issue; happy event; success; prosperity as reached partly by chance and partly by effort.

   Our equal crimes shall equal fortune give.
   --Dryden.

   There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.
   --Shak.

   His father dying, he was driven to seek his fortune.
   --Swift.

4. Wealth; large possessions; large estate; riches; as, a gentleman of fortune.

   Syn: Chance; accident; luck; fate.

   Fortune book, a book supposed to reveal future events to those who consult it.
   --Crashaw.

   Fortune hunter, one who seeks to acquire wealth by marriage.

   Fortune teller, one who professes to tell future events in the life of another.

   Fortune telling, the practice or art of professing to reveal future events in the life of another.

Fortune \For"tune\, v. t. [OF. fortuner, L. fortunare. See Fortune, n.]

1. To make fortunate; to give either good or bad fortune to. [Obs.]
   --Chaucer.

2. To provide with a fortune.
   --Richardson.

3. To presage; to tell the fortune of. [Obs.]
   --Dryden.

Fortune \For"tune\, v. i. To fall out; to happen.

It fortuned the same night that a Christian, serving a Turk in the camp, secretely gave the watchmen warning.
--Knolles.

c.1300, "chance, luck as a force in human affairs," from Old French fortune "lot, good fortune, misfortune" (12c.), from Latin fortuna "chance, fate, good luck," from fors (genitive fortis) "chance, luck," possibly ultimately from PIE root *bher- (1) "to carry" (see infer). If so, the sense might be "that which is brought."\n

\nSense of "owned wealth" is first found in Spenser; probably it evolved from senses of "one's condition or standing in life," hence "position as determined by wealth," then "wealth, large estate" itself. Often personified as a goddess; her wheel betokens vicissitude. Soldier of fortune first attested 1660s. Fortune 500 "most profitable American companies" is 1955, from the list published annually in "Fortune" magazine. Fortune-hunter "one who seeks to marry for wealth" is from 1680s.

n. destiny, especially favorable. vb. (context obsolete intransitive English) To happen, take place. (14th-19th c.)

1. n. an unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that causes an event to result one way rather than another; "bad luck caused his downfall"; "we ran into each other by pure chance" [syn: luck, chance, hazard]

2. a large amount of wealth or prosperity

3. an unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that leads to a favorable outcome; "it was my good luck to be there"; "they say luck is a lady"; "it was as if fortune guided his hand" [syn: luck]

4. your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you); "whatever my fortune may be"; "deserved a better fate"; "has a happy lot"; "the luck of the Irish"; "a victim of circumstances"; "success that was her portion" [syn: destiny, fate, luck, lot, circumstances, portion]

Fortune is a multinational business magazine, published and owned by Time Inc. and headquartered in New York City. The publication was founded by Henry Luce in 1929. The magazine competes with Forbes and Bloomberg Businessweek in the national business magazine category and distinguishes itself with long, in-depth feature articles. The magazine is best known for the Fortune 500, a ranking of companies by revenue that it has published annually since 1955.

1. redirect Fortune

Fortune is an 1980s rock band that had a number of minor hits in the early 1980s including "Airwaves" from the The Last American Virgin movie soundtrack and from their second 1985 album release including: "Stacy," "Dearborn Station," and "Thrill of it All."

"Fortune" is the seventh single release from J-pop artist Nami Tamaki and was released on January 26, 2005 as a limited edition, and a regular edition. It claimed the 6th spot on the Oricon chart. Fortune was also used as a theme for the PlayStation 2 game Radiata Stories.

Fortune is the fourth album released by Beni Arashiro under her new label Universal Music Japan under the mononym Beni on November 2, 2011. The CD+DVD version is a limited edition with all her single PVs with three live videos from her recorded "Jewel tour"

fortune is a simple program that displays a pseudorandom message from a database of quotations that first appeared in Version 7 Unix. The most common version on modern systems is the BSD fortune, originally written by Ken Arnold. Distributions of fortune are usually bundled with a collection of themed files, containing sayings like those found on fortune cookies (hence the name), quotations from famous people, jokes, or poetry.

fortune is predominantly found on Unix-like systems, but clients for other platforms also exist. Often, users on text-mode Unix terminals will place this command into either their .profile or .logout files to display them at logon and logout, respectively. It is also used to generate text input for certain XScreenSaver modes. Many people choose to pipe fortune into the cowsay command, to add more humor to the dialog.

Fortune (originally spelled ) was a professional wrestling alliance in the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion. Originally consisting of leader Ric Flair, A.J. Styles, James Storm, Kazarian, and Robert Roode, the group was modeled and named after Flair's former alliance, the Four Horsemen. The group later also came to include Christopher Daniels, Douglas Williams, and Matt Morgan.

Fortune is the fifth studio album by American singer Chris Brown, released on June 29, 2012. The album is Brown's first release through RCA Records, following the disbandment of Jive Records in October 2011. As the executive producer of the album, Brown collaborated with several record producers, including The Underdogs, Polow da Don, Brian Kennedy, The Runners, The Messengers, Danja and Fuego, among others. The album also features several guest appearances, including Big Sean, Wiz Khalifa, Nas, Kevin McCall, Sevyn and Sabrina Antoinette. Originally scheduled for release six months after the release of his fourth studio album F.A.M.E. (2011), Fortune received several push backs.

Upon its release, Fortune received generally negative reviews from music critics. In the United States, the album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 135,000 copies in its first week making it Brown's second number one album in the United States and becoming his fifth consecutive top ten album following F.A.M.E. in 2011. The album also debuted at number one in the Netherlands, New Zealand and United Kingdom, and reached the top ten in Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Japan and Switzerland.

Preceding the album's release was the lead single " Turn Up the Music", which reached number 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and number one on the UK Singles Chart. " Sweet Love" and " Till I Die" were released as the album's second and third singles, respectively. " Don't Wake Me Up" was released as the fourth single and reached the top ten in several countries. " Don't Judge Me" was released as the fifth and final single from Fortune. To promote the album, Brown made several award show and televised appearances across America. As of October 2013, Fortune has sold 465,000 copies domestically.

In the fall of 1621 the Fortune was the second English ship destined for Plymouth Colony in the New World, one year after the voyage of the Pilgrim ship Mayflower. Financed as the Mayflower was by Thomas Weston and others of the London-based Merchant Adventurers, Fortune was to transport thirty-five settlers to the colony on a ship that was much smaller than Mayflower. The Fortune required two months to prepare for the voyage and once underway, reached Cape Cod on November 9, 1621 and the colony itself in late November. The ship was unexpected by those in Plymouth colony and although it brought useful settlers, many of whom were young men, it brought no supplies, further straining the limited food resources of the colony. The ship only stayed in the colony about three weeks, returning to England in December loaded with valuable furs and other goods. But when nearing England, instead of heading to the English Channel, a navigation error caused the ship to sail south-east to the coast of France, where it was overtaken and seized by a French warship.

The Fortune finally arrived back in London in February 1622, over two months after leaving Plymouth, but without its valuable cargo. In the end, Weston lost his total investment in the Fortune voyage making it worthwhile only in providing Plymouth colony with new settlers, some of whom became notable persons in the history of the colony.

Fortune is both a surname and a given name. Notable people with the name include:

Surname:

• Amos Fortune (citizen of Jaffrey) (c. 1710–1801), African American ex-slave and businessman
• Dion Fortune (1890–1946), born Violet Mary Firth, British occultist and author
• Jesse Fortune (1930–2009), American Chicago blues singer
• J.D. Fortune (1973), American singer and song writer who lead the band INXS till August 2011
• Jimmy Fortune (born 1955), American country music singer
• John Fortune (1939-2013), British comedian best known for his work on the TV series Bremner, Bird and Fortune
• Marc-Antoine Fortuné (born 1981), French Guianese football player
• Quinton Fortune (born 1977), South African football player
• Robert Fortune (1812–1880), Scottish botanist and traveller best known for introducing tea plants from China to India
• Rose Fortune (1774–1864), African American businessperson and first female police officer in Canada
• Scott Fortune (born 1966), American former volleyball player
• Seán Fortune (1954-1999), Irish priest and alleged child molester
• Sonny Fortune (born 1939), American jazz musician
• Timothy Thomas Fortune (1856–1928), American orator, civil rights leader, journalist, writer, editor and publisher
• Victor Fortune (1883–1949), British Army major general

Given name:

• Fortune (circa 1743–1798), African-American slave
• Fortune Gallo (1878–1970), opera impresario
• Fortune Gordien (1922–1990), American athlete, primarily in the discus throw
• Fortuné Méaulle (1844–1901), French engraver

Fictional characters:

• Amos Fortune (comics), DC Comics supervillain
• Anna Fortune, DC Comics character
• Dominic Fortune, Marvel Comics character
• Reginald Fortune, fictional detective of H. C. Bailey
• Fortune, character from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
• Miss Fortune, the Bounty Hunter, a playable champion character in the action real-time strategy video game League of Legends

Fortune (c. 1743 – 1798) was an African-American slave who achieved posthumous notability over the transfer of his remains from a museum storage room to a state funeral.

Under the laws of the 18th century American colonial period, Fortune, his wife Dinah, and their four children were the property of Dr. Preserved Porter, a physician based in Waterbury, Connecticut. Fortune drowned in an accident in the Naugatuck River in 1798, and Dr. Porter dissected his body and preserved his skeleton for anatomic study. The Porter family held Fortune’s remains before donating them to the Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, where they were on display through the 1970s, after which point they were put in storage.

In 1999, the museum received national attention when media coverage highlighted the discovery of Fortune’s remains. Although the skeleton was initially dubbed "Larry," as that name was written on its skull, a later investigation by the African-American Historic Project Committee determined the skeleton belonged to Fortune. The museum created a special exhibit in honor of Fortune that detailed the lives of African-American slaves in the early part of the 19th century.

On September 12, 2013, Fortune’s remains were transferred to the Connecticut State Capitol, where they laid in state before being escorted by state police to St. John's Episcopal Church on the Green, the Waterbury parish where Fortune was baptized in 1797, and a funeral at the city’s Riverside Cemetery.