Archaic term for chance, luck, or fate; something that happens by chance or accident.
From 'hap' (chance, fortune, from Old Norse 'happ' meaning luck) combined with 'chance,' creating a redundancy that was used in Middle and Early Modern English.
Before 'luck' and 'chance' took over, 'hap' meant fortune, and you see it surviving in surnames like 'Happold' and place names—it shows how the vocabulary of uncertainty has changed.
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