hap
Meanings
- 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.
- To happen; to befall; to chance.
- To happen to.
- 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.
- To wrap, clothe.
- Any of the cichlid fishes of the tribe Haplochromini.
- Abbreviation of hospital-acquired pneumonia.
- Initialism of hazardous air pollutant.
Pronunciation
Word forms
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”).