Kismet is a word derived from Turkish and Hindi-Urdu, meaning Fate or Destiny, a predetermined course of events. The word evolved from Persian قسمت (qesmat) meaning “lot,” from qasama, “to divide, allot.”
The first recorded use of the word in English was by Edward Backhouse Eastwick who used the word, spelled “kismat”, in his 1849 novel Dry Leaves from Young Egypt.
This is possibly my favorite word.
