Murphy's law
See also: Murphy's Law
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Named after Edward A. Murphy Jr. (1918–1990), a development engineer who worked for a brief time on the rocket-sled experiments of the United States Air Force in 1948.
Proper noun edit
- An adage which states that if anything can go wrong, then it will.
- Synonyms: Sod's law, Finagle's law
- 1953, Anne Roe, The Making of a Scientist, page 214:
- I ran into the perfect exemplification of “Murphy's law” at one university, where everything that could go wrong did!
- 2014, Muriel Spark, The Golden Fleece, Carcanet, →ISBN:
- ‘It was an application of Murphy's Law,’ said one Vatican dignitary in a resigned voice. What was Murphy's Law? ‘Murphy's Law,’ said the dignitary, ‘is that everything that can possibly go wrong will go wrong.’
Coordinate terms edit
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
adage which states that if anything can go wrong it will
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Further reading edit
- Murphy's law on Wikipedia.Wikipedia