The phrase “black swan” is derived from a Latin expression, first credited to the second century poet Juvenal, when he penned rara vid in terries nigroque simillima cyngo (“a rare bird in the lands and very much like a black swan”). You see, once upon a time, well into the 17th century, Juvenal’s phrase was a common expression in England for an impossibility – that is, black swans simply did not exist. In fact, western mankind, for hundreds and hundreds of years, believed that all swans had white feathers since all empirical evidence declared swans possessed white feathers. Thus, the term “black swan” came to represent an impossibility.

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