Hap definition
An example of a hap is winning the lottery.
Origin of hap
- Middle English from Old Norse happ kob- in Indo-European roots
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
- 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”).
From Wiktionary
- The verb is from Middle English happen, from Old Norse *happa, *heppa, from Proto-Germanic *hampijaną (“to fit in, be fitting”), from the noun. Cognate with Old Danish happe (“to chance, happen”), Norwegian heppa (“to occur, happen”).
From Wiktionary
- From Old English hap
From Wiktionary