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Aug 18, 2026
This week’s themeWords that say it twice This week’s words hapchance
A Gaming Table at Devonshire House, 1791
Art: Thomas Rowlandson Wordsmith Games
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garghapchance
PRONUNCIATION:
MEANING:
ETYMOLOGY:
From hap (chance or luck), from Old Norse happ (good luck) + chance,
from Old French cheance (event, fortune, or the falling of dice), from
Latin cadentia (a falling), from Latin cadere (to fall). Earliest
documented use: 1866.
NOTES:
Hapchance is literally chance chance or luck luck. Apparently,
one can’t have too much good fortune. Apparently, English wasn’t willing
to leave this one to chance.
Also see serendipity, which specifically involves a fortunate discovery
made by chance.
USAGE:
“Two horses meeting by hapchance was one thing, but a downright,
bald-faced preplanned race was, so to speak, a horse of another color.” Jessamyn West; Except for Me and Thee; Harcourt, Brace & World; 1969. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Someone needs to explain to me why wanting clean drinking water makes you
an activist and why proposing to destroy water with chemical warfare
doesn't make a corporation a terrorist. -Winona LaDuke, activist,
environmentalist, economist, and writer (b. 18 Aug 1959)
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