From about 1400, from hap + -less.

• IPA: /ˈhæplɪs/
• (America) IPA: /ˈhæpləs/

hapless

1. (Especially of a person) unfortunate.
2. Very unlucky; ill-fated.
   • 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], “chapter 8”, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC ↗:

     Thus spoke my prophetic soul, as, torn by remorse, horror, and despair, I beheld those I loved spend vain sorrow upon the graves of William and Justine, the first hapless victims to my unhallowed arts.

   • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Affair at the Novelty Theatre ↗”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC ↗; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831 ↗, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

     Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.

   • 1914, John Galsworthy, The Mob, act 1:

     My dear friend, are you to become that hapless kind of outcast, a champion of lost causes?

3. (Very) miserable, wretched, unhappy, measly, forlorn.
4. Devoid of talent or skill.

• happy
• happen

• French: malheureux, infortuné, malchanceux
• German: unglückselig
• Italian: sfortunato
• Portuguese: azarado
• Russian: невезу́чий
• Spanish: infeliz, infortunado, desgraciado