A device or tool used in textile manufacturing or similar crafts, or someone who performs a specific action repeatedly, though the exact definition is archaic.
Possibly from 'hap' (an archaic or dialectal word meaning to grasp, seize, or occur by chance) + '-er' (agent suffix). The term appears in historical textile and craft documentation but has largely fallen out of use.
Many old craft-related job titles like 'happer' have disappeared because the tools and processes themselves became obsolete—when machines replaced hand looms, words describing the skilled hand-workers vanished from English almost overnight.
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