Happyliche

Part of speech: adverb

Definitions

1. An archaic adverb from Middle English meaning by chance, perhaps, or as it happens
2. Obsolete adverb used in older English to suggest that something might occur by luck or possibly
3. Old-fashioned adverb meaning haply, or perhaps by chance, found in medieval writing

Etymology: The Middle English adverb "happyliche" meant "by good fortune" or "by chance," and its meaning followed its base word. "Happy" once meant "lucky" or "fortunate" and had nothing to do with a cheerful mood. It comes from the noun "hap," meaning chance or luck, which Middle English borrowed from Old Norse "happ." The "-liche" ending is the Old English adverbial suffix, the source of modern "-ly," so the word was simply "lucky-like," describing how something happened. The sense of chance eventually produced a second meaning. Something that happened by luck might happen at all, so "happily" came to mean "perhaps," a sense that survives in the shortened form "haply," still used in formal and literary English. Meanwhile "happy" drifted toward its modern sense of contentment, as lucky circumstances came to be associated with a pleasant state of mind.