chance

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /tʃɑːns/, US /tʃæns/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English chaunce, borrowed from Old French cheance (“accident, chance, fortune; the falling of dice”),^[2][3][4] from Vulgar Latin *cadentia (“that which falls out, a falling”), a term used in dice,^[3][2][5] from Latin cadēns, the present participle of cadere (“to fall”).^[3][2][6] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *kad- (“to fall”),^[3][6] and Merriam-Webster compares Sanskrit śad-, “to fall off”.^[7][8] It is a doublet of cadence.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The way in which things happen, fortune; also one's luck or lot, and an opportunity: 1297,^[9] or about 1300.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that the senses “opportunity” and “randomness” are as old as the English record of the word and now crowd out its original sense “mere occurrence”.^[3] A fortuitous event is recorded from before 1300.^[9] The absence of any cause, chance viewed as a real agent, is from about 1400.^[3] In Middle English chance could also mean an accident.^[10] The verb meant “to happen” from 1393, in Gower,^[9][2] and “to come upon by chance” from 1536.^[9] “To risk, take the chances of” is from 1859,^[3][9] and chance one's arm, “to take a risk”, from 1889.^[9][10] The adjective “due to chance, casual” is from the 1670s.^[3] In Yorkshire and Lincolnshire dialect a chance, or chance-bairn in Scotland, was an illegitimate child.^[11]

Timeline

• 1297 – fortune; an opportunity.^[9]
• before 1300 – a chance event.^[9]
• 1393 – verb, to happen (Gower).^[9]
• c. 1400 – chance as a force.^[3]
• 1536 – verb, to come upon by chance.^[9]
• 1670s – adjective, casual.^[3]
• 1859 – verb, to risk.^[3][9]
• 1889 – chance one's arm.^[9]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The unpredictable element in events that seems to have no cause; luck or fortune.
2. The likelihood of something happening; probability.
3. An accidental or unpredictable event.
4. A favourable set of circumstances; an opportunity.
5. A risk or hazard: take a chance.

Adjective

1. Caused by chance; unexpected or casual.

Verb

1. To come about by chance; to happen.
2. To take the risk of.

Word family

• chanceless
• chanceful
• happenchance
• bechance
• chance-medley
• chancer
• chancy
• perchance

Related words

• cadence
• accident
• decay
• occasion
• mischance

Usage notes

The American Heritage Dictionary compares the adjective chance, which stresses lack of premeditation, with random, casual, haphazard and desultory.^[12]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
7. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin