breakdown of 願ってもない申し出


I found this expression and the dictionaries give

> "heaven sent offer", "best offer one could ask for"; "offer just what one
> wants"

I am interested by the break down this expression, ie how it came to have this
meaning :

> "an offer (申し出)I did not(ない) even (も) ask (願って)".

Is this correct ?




This arguably falls into the category of "could be answered with a simple
dictionary search", but I think in this case it would be hard to know what to
search for, because it's made up of arguably three different things
(`願って`+`も`+`ない`).

To answer your question, the original translation of "heaven sent offer" is
pretty close to accurate. The reason is that `願ってもない` [is a set
phrase](https://jisho.org/search/%E9%A1%98%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6%E3%82%82%E3%81%AA%E3%81%84)
meaing exactly what one was looking for, or precisely what one wanted.

Edit: since the question has been updated to be about etymology, I will
attempt to address that.

First off, it's worth pointing out that the `ない` here is `無い` and not a
contraction of `いない`. It's not "something not wished for", but "something that
doesn't exist even if wished for".

I can't find anything that explicitly addresses the etymology, but dictionary
definitions provide some context. For example, From
[kotobank](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%A1%98%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6%E3%82%82%E7%84%A1%E3%81%84-594661):

> 望んでも簡単にかないそうもないことが運よく実現するさま
>
> When something wished for but unlikely to actually happen luckily appears

You can find similar explanations
[here](https://kotowaza.jitenon.jp/kotowaza/6196.php) and
[here](https://mayonez.jp/topic/5234). Basically, it seems like this is
expressing the idea of something being desirable but typically out of reach.




This arguably falls into the category of "could be answered with a simple
dictionary search", but I think in this case it would be hard to know what to
search for, because it's made up of arguably three different things
(`願って`+`も`+`ない`).

To answer your question, the original translation of "heaven sent offer" is
pretty close to accurate. The reason is that `願ってもない` [is a set
phrase](https://jisho.org/search/%E9%A1%98%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6%E3%82%82%E3%81%AA%E3%81%84)
meaing exactly what one was looking for, or precisely what one wanted.

Edit: since the question has been updated to be about etymology, I will
attempt to address that.

First off, it's worth pointing out that the `ない` here is `無い` and not a
contraction of `いない`. It's not "something not wished for", but "something that
doesn't exist even if wished for".

I can't find anything that explicitly addresses the etymology, but dictionary
definitions provide some context. For example, From
[kotobank](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%A1%98%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6%E3%82%82%E7%84%A1%E3%81%84-594661):

> 望んでも簡単にかないそうもないことが運よく実現するさま
>
> When something wished for but unlikely to actually happen luckily appears

You can find similar explanations
[here](https://kotowaza.jitenon.jp/kotowaza/6196.php) and
[here](https://mayonez.jp/topic/5234). Basically, it seems like this is
expressing the idea of something being desirable but typically out of reach.

