n.
WA vnhapp, vnhappe
'mishap, misfortune, disaster'
(Modern English )Formed on hap, and cp. OIcel óhapp ‘bad fortune’.
PGmc Ancestor
*xap(p)-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
happ ‘good luck, chance’; cp. óhapp ‘bad fortune’
(ONP happ (sb.); cp. óhapp (sb.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Far happ, Icel happ, Norw happ, Sw dial happ
OE Cognate
cp. gehæp and gehæplic (adj.) ‘fit, convenient, opportune'
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
C1
Common and widespread from early ME.
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Gaw 438; Cl 143, 892, 1150; WA 3287, 4554
Gaw 2511 vnhap is interpreted as another instance of this n. by several editions (and see Menner 1926: 399–400, Wright 1935: 347–8), but as a v. meaning ‘unfasten’ by TGD, AW, PS and McGillivray; see vnhap (2).