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”).
1
Archaic A person's lot (good or bad), luck, fortune, fate.
2
Archaic A stroke of good or bad luck, an occurrence or happening, especially an unexpected, random, chance, or fortuitous event.
Cursed be good haps, and cursed be they that build / Their hopes on haps, and do not make despair / For all these certain blows the surest shield.c. 1580s, Sir Philip Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, book 2:
And whether art it were, or heedless hap, / As through the flowring forest rash she fled, / In her rude hairs sweet flowres themselves did lap / And flourishing fresh leaves and blossoms did enwrap.1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, book 2, canto 3, verse 30:
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Each day ſtill better others happineſſe, Vntill the heauens enuying earths good hap, Adde an immortall title to your Crowne.1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 23, column 1:
URSULA. She's lim'd, I warrant you: we have caught her, madam. HERO. If it prove so, then loving goes by haps Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.1599, William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, Act 3 Scene 1:
[I]t hath been many an honest man's hap to pass for the father of children he never begot […]1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling:
He at once resolved to accompany me to that island, ship aboard the same vessel, get into the same watch, the same boat, the same mess with me, in short to share my every hap; with both my hands in his, boldly dip into the Potluck of both worlds.1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick:
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”).
"But laudably, since thus it happed!" quoth one: Whereat, more witness and the case postponed. "Thus it happed not, since thus he did the deed,....1868-9, Robert Browning, “The Ring and the Book”, in Edward Berdoe, editor, The poetical works of Robert Browning, published 1889, page 17:
"We must go there to retrieve it before the Krikkit robots find it, or who knows what may hap."1982, Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything, page 81:
Archaic, In plural, Slang Happenings; events; goings-on.
Katie Griffin as Samantha Sparks: "Hey, Flint. I heard your extended (gasp) earlier. What's the haps?" Mark Edwards as Flint Lockwood: "The haps is -- you're not going to believe this, but dad asked me to make him an invention!"2018, Something Fishy (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: The Series):
Bless thy pretty heart! The bairn’s sick. Come wi’ me, and I’ll hap thee up somewhere. If thou wert a bit cleaner I’d put thee in my own bed, for the Lord’s sake.1863, Charles Kingsley, The Water Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby:
The surgeon happed her up carefully.1859, John Brown, Rab and his Friends:
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The practice was, before firing a shot for the purpose of blasting, to give an order to hap the crane, that is, to cover it, in order to protect it from the effect of the shot.1899, “Bartonshill Coal Co. v. Beid, 1 Pat. Sc. App. 792, 793.”, in Robert Campbell, editor, Ruling cases, volume 19:
hap
noun
Etymology Inherited from Old English hap.
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Pennsylvania, Scotland, UK, Western, Archaic 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.