An event or situation that occurs by chance; something that happens without being planned or expected.
From 'happen' + 'stance' (standing position or state). The 'stance' part likely comes from earlier compound words like 'circumstance,' emerging in American English around the 1850s.
You've probably heard 'happenstance' in movies—it's become the cute way to say something was just a coincidence, but it's actually a pretty recent word that combined 'happen' with the '-stance' ending to rhyme with 'circumstance!'
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