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Etymology and origin of the English word hap

Pronunciation

hap1 luck, chance

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
c. 1225 St. Katherine
Borrowed from
Old Norse happ via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Old Norse happ

Etymology

The word for luck is inherited from Middle English hap, also happe and heppe,[2][3] probably borrowed from Old Norse happ (“chance, good luck”).[4][5][2][6][7] It is related to Old English gehæp (“fit, convenient”) and gehæplic (“convenient, orderly”),[4][6][7] and cognate with Norwegian heppa (“to happen”) and Swedish hampa (“to happen”).[4][3][8] The Germanic base is reconstructed as Proto-Germanic *hampą,[1] and Köbler gives its sense as "to fit".[9] Watkins traces it to Proto-Indo-European *kob- (“to suit, fit, succeed”),[5][10] also the source of Old Irish cob (“victory”) and an Old Church Slavonic word for fate.[4][5][3][1] The Gersum Project notes that Old English has no clear noun of this root, only the adjectives.[7] The verb, Middle English happen, is probably formed from the noun;[4][2][11] the OED discusses an isolated past tense Old English hæpte in Ælfric that might show an older verb, but doubts any continuity.[4] Etymonline allows the same Old English source.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Good fortune, success: about 1225, in the life of Saint Katherine,[4] and about 1200 in Etymonline, which notes that the Old Norse word seems to have had only good senses.[5]

Semantic evolution

The sense "good luck" was soon joined by the neutral "one's lot, fortune", and by "a chance event", often an unlucky one, both in Laȝamon's Brut (about 1275);[4][2] the "good fortune" sense died out by 1813.[4] From 1340 the word also meant chance itself, as the cause of events, and the phrase by hap, by chance, followed in the 15th century.[4][12] The verb, recorded from about 1350, first meant to fare well or badly, then to come about by chance and to have the luck to do something.[4] It was largely replaced by happen from the 14th century,[6][11] and Etymonline dates the verb to about 1300.[5] Happy first meant lucky, a sense kept in happy-go-lucky.[13][6] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as "chance; fortune" and thought it Welsh in origin.[14] The verb lived on in dialect: in the 19th century it was used in Scotland, Ireland and many English counties for "to happen", and with on or upon for "to come upon by chance".[15]

Timeline

  • c. 1225 – good fortune, success (obsolete by 1813).[4]
  • c. 1275 – one's luck or lot; a chance event, often a mishap.[4][2]
  • 1340 – chance as the cause of events.[4][12]
  • c. 1350 – verb, to fare well or badly (obsolete by 1860).[4]
  • before 1387 – verb, to come about by chance.[4]
  • before 1393 – verb, to have the luck to do something; to come upon by chance.[4]
  • before 1450 – by hap, by chance.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (archaic) Luck or chance, especially as the cause of events.[16][8][4]
  2. (archaic) Something that happens by chance; an occurrence, often an unlucky one: the haps and mishaps of a long voyage.[16][8][4]
  3. (obsolete, 1225–1813) Good fortune, success.[4][2]

Verb

  1. (archaic) To happen or come about by chance.[16][8][11]
  2. (archaic) To happen to do something: If you hap to pass the mill, call in.[8][11]
  3. hap on or upon: to come upon by chance.[8][11][4]

Word family

hap2 to wrap, cover

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1390 A Talking of the Love of God
Inherited from
Middle English happen

Etymology

The verb for wrapping is inherited from Middle English happen, also hap.[2] Its origin is uncertain.[4][16] The Middle English Dictionary suggests a blend of lappen (lap, to wrap) with Old French happer (“to seize”),[2][17] which the OED finds difficult to prove;[4] the OED notes that its distribution in the north has also suggested a Scandinavian source, though no likely word has been found,[4] and the Shorter Oxford and Collins call it perhaps Scandinavian.[11][16] The noun, a wrap or covering, is formed from the verb.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

To wrap a garment round someone, especially for warmth: about 1390, in A Talking of the Love of God.[4][2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the verb to the 14th century.[8]

Semantic evolution

By about 1400 the verb had the wider sense "to cover, enfold", in Cleanness, and in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight a figurative one, "to bind".[4][2] The noun, a covering, wrap, shawl or coverlet, is recorded from 1593.[4][8] In Wright's time both were in general dialect use in Scotland, Ireland and the northern counties down to Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, and also in Northamptonshire and East Anglia: snow or mist haps the hills, and a child is happed up in bed.[15] Collins labels the verb Scottish, East Anglian and Ulster dialect.[16]

Timeline

  • c. 1390 – to wrap a garment round someone, especially for warmth.[4][2]
  • c. 1400 – to cover or enfold; figuratively, to bind.[4]
  • 1593 – noun, a covering, wrap or coverlet.[4][8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (dialect) To wrap up warmly, as in a coat or bedclothes: She happed the baby in a shawl.[16][8][4]
  2. (dialect) To cover something, as snow covers the ground.[16][4][15]

Noun

  1. (dialect) A covering, such as a shawl, cloak or quilt.[16][8][4]

Usage notes

The OED and Wright record several other words spelled hap.[4][15] An obsolete verb meaning to seize or snatch (1528–1754) is probably borrowed from French happer.[4][3] A call to draught animals to turn to the right, recorded from 1723, is probably imitative.[4][15] In American slang, the haps (from 1957), the latest news, as in what's the haps?, is short for happening.[4][18]

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Dance, Richard; Pons-Sanz, Sara; Schorn, Brittany, eds., The Gersum Project: The Scandinavian Influence on English Vocabulary, gersum.org
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  11. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  13. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  15. ^ a b c d e 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)
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h i Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  17. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  18. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com

Related etymologies

  • anger · also from Old Norse
  • ugly · also from Old Norse
  • root · also from Old Norse
  • knife · also from Old Norse
  • creek · also from Old Norse
  • fleet · also from Old Norse
  • bang · also from Old Norse
  • stem · also from Old Norse
Cite this entry

“Hap.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/hap. Accessed 8 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·