hapless

English

WOTD – 14 July 2012

Etymology

From about 1400, from hap (“luck”) +‎ -less.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈhæplɪs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhæpləs/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: (US) -æpləs

Adjective

hapless (comparative more hapless, superlative most hapless)

1. (Especially of a person) unfortunate.
2. Very unlucky; ill-fated.
   • 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], “chapter 8”, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC:

     Thus spoke my prophetic soul, as, torn by remorse, horror, and despair, I beheld those I loved spend vain sorrow upon the graves of William and Justine, the first hapless victims to my unhallowed arts.

   • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Affair at the Novelty Theatre”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

     Miss Phyllis Morgan, as the hapless heroine dressed in the shabbiest of clothes, appears in the midst of a gay and giddy throng; she apostrophises all and sundry there, including the villain, and has a magnificent scene which always brings down the house, and nightly adds to her histrionic laurels.

   • 1914, John Galsworthy, The Mob, act 1:

     My dear friend, are you to become that hapless kind of outcast, a champion of lost causes?

   • 2008 December 31, Harriet Barovick, “Detroit The Lost Season”, in Time:

     The hapless squad, which was outscored 517-268 in 2008, became the first in league history to go 0-16.

3. (Very) miserable, wretched, unhappy, measly, forlorn.
4. Devoid of talent or skill.
   • 2012 April 26, Tasha Robinson, “Film: Reviews: The Pirates! Band Of Misfits :”, in The Onion AV Club‎^[1]:

     Gideon Defoe scripted from his own series-launching comedic book The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists, about the adventures of a hapless group of pirates known only by names like The Pirate With The Scarf, The Pirate With Gout, and in the case of their leader, The Pirate Captain.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:hapless.

Derived terms

• haplessly
• haplessness

Related terms

• happy
• happen

Translations

very unlucky; ill-fated

• Albanian: fatkeq (sq)
• Amharic: አባርረዋል (ʾäbarräwal)
• Arabic: قَلِيل الحَظّ (qalīl al-ḥaẓẓ)
• Armenian: դժբախտ (hy) (džbaxt), անբախտ (hy) (anbaxt), ձախորդ (hy) (jaxord)
• Azerbaijani: ürəyisınıq
• Basque: baliteke zoritxarreko
• Bulgarian: злополучен (bg) (zlopolučen)
• Catalan: desventurat
• Cebuano: makalolooy
• Czech: nešťastný (cs), pronásledovaný smůlou
• Danish: ulykkelig
• Dutch: ongelukkig (nl), onfortuinlijk (nl)
• Finnish: onneton (fi), kovaonninen, epäonninen (fi)
• French: malheureux (fr), infortuné (fr), malchanceux (fr)
• Galician: cativo (gl)
• German: unglückselig (de)
• Greek: άμοιρος (el) (ámoiros)
• Hungarian: balsorsú, szerencsétlen (hu)
• Indonesian: malang (id)
• Italian: sfortunato (it) m
• Latin: miseros
• Macedonian: не́среќен (nésreḱen)
• Manx: neuspeeideilagh
• Maori: taitaiā, wairuatoa
• Ottoman Turkish: اوغورسز (uğursuz), بختسز (bahtsız), قوتسز (kutsuz)
• Plautdietsch: onjlekjlich
• Portuguese: azarado (pt) m
• Russian: невезу́чий (ru) (nevezúčij), неуда́чливый (ru) (neudáčlivyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: nesretan (sh)
• Spanish: infeliz (es), infortunado (es), desgraciado (es)
• Swedish: olycklig (sv)
• Turkish: bahtsız (tr), şanssız (tr), uğursuz (tr)
• Yiddish: שלימאַזלדיק (shlimazldik)
• Yoruba: apọn

Anagrams

• phasels, plashes, shpeals