Hap

Pronunciation

• IPA: /hæp/
• Rhymes: -æp

From Middle English hap, happe ("chance, hap, luck, fortune"), from Old Norse happ ("hap, chance, good luck"), from Proto-Germanic *hampą ("convenience, happiness"), from Proto-Indo-European *kob- ("good fortune, prophecy; to bend, bow, fit in, work, succeed"). Cognate with Icelandic happ ("hap, chance, good luck"). Related also to Icelandic heppinn ("lucky, fortunate, happy"), Old Danish hap ("fortunate"), Old English ġehæp ("fit, convenient"), Swedish hampa ("to turn out"), Old Church Slavonic кобь (kobĭ, "fate"), Old Irish cob ("victory").

The verb is from Middle English happen, from Old Norse *happa, *heppa, from Proto-Germanic *hampijanÄ… ("to fit in, be fitting"), from the noun. Cognate with Old Danish happe ("to chance, happen"), Norwegian heppa ("to occur, happen").

Full definition of hap

Noun

1. That which happens; an occurrence or happening, especially an unexpected, random, chance, or fortuitous event; chance; fortune; luck.
• 1599, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing,URSULA. She's lim'd, I warrant you: we have caught her, madam.HERO. If it prove so, then loving goes by haps:Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.
• Spenserwhether art it was or heedless hap
• Sir Philip SidneyCursed be good haps, and cursed be they that build
  Their hopes on haps.
• 1851, Herman Melville, :He at once resolved to accompany me to that island, ship aboard the same vessel, get into the same watch, the same boat, the same mess with me, in short to share my every hap; with both my hands in his, boldly dip into the Potluck of both worlds.

Derived terms

Verb

1. (intransitive, literary) to happen; to befall; to chance.
• 1868-9, Robert Browning, The poetical works of Robert Browning Chapter The Ring and the Book, "But laudably, since thus it happed!" quoth one: Whereat, more witness and the case postponed. "Thus it happed not, since thus he did the deed,....
2. (transitive, literary) To happen to.
• 1891, Elizabeth Stoddard, No Answer, What meaneth June, to hap us every year.

From Old English hap

Noun

1. (UK, Scotland, dialect) A wrap, such as a quilt or a comforter. Also, a small or folded blanket placed on the end of a bed to keep feet warm.

Verb

1. (dialect) To wrap or clothe.
• Dr. J. BrownThe surgeon happed her up carefully.
• 1899, Bartonshill Coal Co. v. Beid, 1 Pat. Sc. App. 792, 793., The practice was, before firing a shot for the purpose of blasting, to give an order to hap the crane, that is, to cover it, in order to protect it from the effect of the shot.

Anagrams

• pah, PAH