• IPA: /hæp/

From Middle English hap, happe, potentially cognate with or from Old English ġehæp and/or Old Norse happ, from Proto-Germanic *hampą, from Proto-Indo-European *kob-.

Cognate with Icelandic happ. Related also to Icelandic heppinn, gmq-oda hap, Swedish hampa, Church Slavic кобь, Old Irish cob.

The verb is from Middle English happen, perhaps from Old English hæppan and/or from Old Norse *happa, *heppa, from Proto-Germanic *hampijaną, from the noun.

hap (plural haps)

1. (slang, in the plural) Happenings; events; goings-on.
2. (archaic) That which happens; an occurrence or happening, especially an unexpected, random, chance, or fortuitous event; chance; fortune; luck.
   • 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:

     Each day ſtill better others happineſſe,
     Vntill the heauens enuying earths good hap,
     Adde an immortall title to your Crowne.

• (happenings) affairs; see also Thesaurus:occurrence
• (an unexpected, random, chance, or fortuitous event) hazard, serendipity; see also Thesaurus:luck

hap (haps, present participle happing; simple past and past participle happed)

1. (intransitive, literary) To happen; to befall; to chance.

   Synonyms: come to pass, occur, transpire, Thesaurus:happen

2. (transitive, literary) To happen to.

From Old English hap.

hap (plural haps)

1. (UK, Scotland, Western Pennsylvania English) 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.

hap (haps, present participle happing; simple past and past participle happed)

1. (dialect) To wrap, clothe.
   • 1859, John Brown, Rab and his Friends:

     The surgeon happed her up carefully.

Shortening of nl. - Haplochromis

hap (plural haps)

1. Any of the cichlid fishes of the tribe Haplochromini.

hap (plural haps)

1. (medicine, pathology) Abbreviation of hospital-acquired pneumonia
2. Initialism of hazardous air pollutant

• (hospital-acquired pneumonia) NP