hap
Meanings
Plural: haps
Noun
- an accidental happening
- "he recorded all the little haps and mishaps of his life"
- A person's lot (good or bad), luck, fortune, fate.
- A stroke of good or bad luck, an occurrence or happening, especially an unexpected, random, chance, or fortuitous event.
- Happenings; events; goings-on.
- 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.
- Any of the cichlid fishes of the tribe Haplochromini.
Verb
- come to pass
- "What is happening?"
- To happen; to befall; to chance.
- To happen to.
- To wrap, clothe.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English hap, happe (“chance, hap, luck, fortune”), potentially cognate with or from Old English ġehæp (“fit, convenient”) and/or 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”), Swedish hampa (“to turn out”), Old Church Slavonic кобь (kobĭ, “fate”), Old Irish cob (“victory”).
The verb is from Middle English happen, perhaps from Old English hæppan (“to move accidentally, slip”) and/or 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”).
Synonyms
affairs, bechance, befall, belimp, betide, betime, chance, come about, come to pass, crop up, evene, eventuate, fall out, go on, hap, happen, hazard, hold, luck, occur, occurrence, pass, pass off, serendipity, take place, tide, transpire
Scrabble Score: 8
hap is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL wordhap is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
hap is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary