What is the 'haps' in 'perhaps'?
The RobWords Newsletter
Welcome to another RobWords newsletter. Coming up:
ETYMOLOGY ROULETTE – perhaps
VOCABULARY EXPANDER – napiform
Words for things shaped like things
And much more.
There’s no “maybe” about it: you’re going to love this dose of word facts and language fun.
PERHAPS
A chance encounter with its etymology.
I felt inspired to explore the origins of perhaps after watching a video about its German equivalent vielleicht (it means “maybe” but is literally “much-light”).
The word perhaps and its flamboyant sibling perchance are equivalent in meaning. They both evoke the idea of something happening “by luck”.
Hap is a defunct word meaning “good fortune” – in Old English it was gehæp. It endures only in fossilised form in words like perhaps, happen (i.e. “occurring by chance”) and, I think most surprisingly, happy.
To our forebears, “happiness” was less about “gladness” and more about having Lady Luck on your side. English isn’t alone in this; many of our linguistic neighbours have words for “happiness” that equate to “fortunate” – German Glücklich and French heureux, for example.
1617
“Perhaps I haue seene a more sumptuous monument, but a more beautifull did I neuer see.”
– Fynes Morrison, An Itinerary
A look through the archives turns up historical alternatives to perhaps including percase and the swashbuckling peradventure.
Worth resurrecting in uncertain times, perhaps?
NAPIFORM
Turnip-shaped
Pronounced NAY-puh-form, this essential word can be applied to anything that has the shape or appearance of a turnip. So, something bulbous at one end and tapering to a point at the other.
Okay, I’m struggling to think of anything other than a root vegetable that could be described as such. An enema douche, maybe?
But apparently, in botanical circles, this word is endlessly useful.
1952
“Slender, erect, herbaceous, caulescent, branching, scaberulous perennial, from a napiform root.”
– Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club
I’ll be mining that quotation for future Vocabulary Expander segments.
Napiform is composed of the Latin elements nāpus “turnip” and forma “shape”.
Indeed, we used to call turnips napes in English, and the variant neep is still used for turnips or swedes in Scotland. The -nip in turnip comes from the same source.
And the tur- bit? Nobody knows. It’s possible they were originally called “turn-napes” because they looked like they’d been carved on a lathe.
Anyway: napiform.
USE IT TODAY!
How Germanic is English?
English has Germanic DNA, but with most of its words having been pilfered from French and Latin, is it still technically a Germanic language?
Author Jess Zafarris and I put that question to bed in the latest episode of our podcast Words Unravelled. Watch or listen below.
Can you guess the correct definition of the word below?
MAFFICK
Pertaining to ‘the Mob’
Celebrate uproariously
An arithmetic board game
Congestion on a bridleway
Words for things shaped like other things
We now have the napiform at our disposal, but what if we encounter something that isn’t at all shaped like a turnip? The list below should have you covered.
CALCEIFORM – Shoe-shaped.
CAMPANIFORM – Bell-shaped.
CANCRIFORM – Crab-shaped.
DENDRIFORM – Tree-shaped.
FALCIFORM – Sickle- or hook-shaped. The falcon may well be named for its curved, sharp talons.
FISTULIFORM – Tube-shaped. Fistulas were originally tube-like abnormalities beneath the skin.
FUSIFORM – Spindle-shaped (think fusilli or fuselage).
MAMMIFORM – Boob-shaped.
NUBIFORM – Cloud-shaped.
PHOCIFORM – Seal-shaped.
PLUMIFORM – Feather-shaped. Also, penniform.
POCULIFORM – Cup- or bowl-shaped.
ROSTELLIFORM – Beak-shaped.
SIRENIFORM – Having the lower extremities united into a single limb. Like a mermaid.
VESPIFORM – Wasp-shaped. Watch out.
MAFFICK
Celebrate uproariously
Maffick originally referred to the extravagant rejoicing that followed the relief of the British garrison at Mafeking (now Mafikeng) in South Africa in May 1900. However, it came to be a pejorative term for any over-exuberant celebration.