happ

Forms

happ n^[1] Spellings in the record include hap, haps, haupp and hopp.^[2][3]

Etymology

Wiktionary gives it as inherited from Proto-Germanic *hampą (“good luck, chance”).^[1] De Vries thinks it perhaps from such a form with ⟨mp⟩, comparing the Swedish reflexive verb hampa (“to come about”), but takes the double ⟨pp⟩ more likely as expressive than as an assimilation;^[4] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon also doubts the assimilation.^[5] The nearest Germanic relative is the Old English adjective gehæp (“fit, convenient”).^[6][5][7]

Outside Germanic the usual comparisons, without the nasal, are an Old Church Slavonic word for “omen” and Old Irish cob (“victory”), which Pokorny and Köbler place under Proto-Indo-European *kob- (“to fit, succeed”).^[4][5][8] Jóhannesson instead sets it with hætta (“to risk”) under a root for doubt and hesitation.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

ONP's earliest dated citation is from AM 645 4to, dated 1220, in a story of the apostle Clement: þeir er sér vę́ᴛo haps. oc heilso af verþleicom postolaɴs “those who hoped for good fortune and health from the apostle's merits”.^[2][10] There the word already has its main sense of good luck.^[2]

Semantic evolution

ONP's first sense is good luck, a favourable outcome or advantage, often in phrases such as láta sér at happi verða “to seize the chance” and the proverb opt gefr óvǽnum happ “luck often comes to the one who has no hope of it”.^[2] Cleasby and Vigfússon stress the element of chance in it.^[11] A second, concrete sense is gain or yield, especially in the legal saying sá skal hafa happ er hlotit hefr “he shall have the gain who has got it”.^[2][12] Most citations come from historical works and family sagas.^[2] Poetry formed compounds such as happmildr and happsnauðr.^[11]

It survives as Icelandic happ and Faroese happ.^[1][5] Middle English took it as hap, the source of English hap and happen.^{[7][13][14][4]} Henderson and others derived Scottish Gaelic tapadh in tapadh leat “thank you” from it, but Cox thinks a Norse loan unlikely.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – English hap “chance, luck”, from the Norse word.^[14]
• 1220 – haps “good fortune” in AM 645 4to.^[2]
• 1225–1250 – hap in the Norwegian manuscript DG 8 II.^[3]
• 1265 – til happs ok heilla sátta “for good luck and a sound settlement” in a Grágás manuscript.^[16][2]
• 1275 – the saying sá skal hafa happ er hlotit hefr, with the sense “gain”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. good luck, fortune, a favourable outcome, advantage.^[2][17][18]
2. tangible gain, yield, as from land.^[2][12]

Word family

• heppinn
• óhapp
• happadrjúgr
• happamikill
• happaráð
• happaverk
• happlauss
• happsamr
• happskeytr

Descendants

• Icelandic happ^[1]
• Faroese happ^[1]
• Norn happ^[1]
• English hap^[7][13][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. happ
3. ^ a b Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. DG 8 II
4. ^ a b c de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 209
5. ^ a b c d Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. happ
6. ^ Torp, Alf (1909), Wortschatz der germanischen Spracheinheit (Fick, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, 4th ed., vol. 3), Göttingen, p. 74
7. ^ a b c Dance, Richard; Pons-Sanz, Sara; Schorn, Brittany, eds., The Gersum Project: The Scandinavian Influence on English Vocabulary, gersum.org
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ Jóhannesson, Alexander (1956), Isländisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Bern, p. 254
10. ^ Larsson, Ludvig (1891), Ordförrådet i de älsta islänska handskrifterna, Lund: Ph. Lindstedt, p. 134
11. ^ a b Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 239
12. ^ a b Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 232
13. ^ a b 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)
14. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
15. ^ Cox, Richard A. V. (2024–2026), Old Norse Loan-Words in Scottish Gaelic, Clann Tuirc, richardavcox.scot/ONlwSG, p. s.v. tapadh
16. ^ Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
17. ^ Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. happ
18. ^ Faulkes, Anthony (2011), A New Introduction to Old Norse III: Glossary and Index of Names, 4th ed., London: Viking Society for Northern Research, p. s.v. happ