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Take "folly" for example, there is the term "fool" or "foolish" for the individual that does that folly, and the term "foolishness" that is the quality of being foolish or doing folly. I am looking for words or phrases that can be applied to "opportunities" as of folly, that mean:

  1. what the person that has much opportunities is called; Analogy: "fool" or "foolish"
  2. the quality of having opportunities; Analogy: "foolishness"

keep in mind that folly, fool, foolish, foolishness are all in the same family of words.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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  • There's the derivation opportunistic for someone who (unfairly) exploits opportunities. But I doubt there are any terms based on that root with the meaning having many opportunities (whether taken advantage of or not). The standard concept in this area is that of being in a privileged position (having opportunities that are denied to others).
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented May 15, 2017 at 15:42
  • they are in an opportune situation
    – Tom22
    Commented May 15, 2017 at 21:00
  • @aparente001: Why would you say that? It's a comment, not an answer, so it doesn't need to "get to" whatever OP wants to know. But the purpose of my comment was to point out that 1) The "family of words" centred around opportunity doesn't include any relating to a person having many opportunities, and 2) the concept OP is getting at isn't easily/naturally expressed in English. Sure, I can say The world is his oyster, but the "natural" adjectives in that general area are things like He's privileged or He's lucky, which aren't quite the same thing.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented May 16, 2017 at 12:35
  • @FumbleFingers - Thank you for clarifying. I take it you were letting OP know that the only word in the family is opportunistic which unfortunately doesn't come close to what OP was looking for. I'm sorry I didn't understand that the first time.
    – aparente001
    Commented May 16, 2017 at 17:09
  • @aparente001: Effectively, yes. There's also opportune, with synonyms including auspicious, propitious, favourable, advantageous, heaven-sent, golden, good, right, lucky, happy, fortunate, benign, providential, felicitous, but that's not an attribute we use for people - it's only applied to [favourable] circumstances. I assume the concept of social mobility is central to the "word family" OP seeks, but you couldn't even rely on, say, John is socially mobile being correctly interpreted (maybe he just has multiple non-overlapping circles of friends all of his social class).
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented May 17, 2017 at 12:56

3 Answers 3

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When you have opportunities, you are lucky, in other words, you are fortunate.

what the person that has much opportunities is called; Analogy: "fool" or "foolish"

Fortunate

the quality of having opportunities; Analogy: "foolishness"

Good fortune

See, for example, http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fortune

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lot of promise TFD

much promise for the future. (*Typically: have ~; show ~.) Sally is quite young, but she has a lot of promise. This bush is small, but it shows a lot of promise.

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You could say use the currently very fashionable word "privileged":

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/privilege

a. A special advantage, immunity, permission, right, or benefit granted to or enjoyed by an individual, class, or caste.

This is often applied to people who have more opportunities than most, for example because of their parents' wealth or social connections.

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