mayhap: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for November 26 is:

mayhap \MAY-hap\ adverb
: perhaps

Example sentence:
"We are just wondering and looking and mayhap seeing what we never perceived before." (James Robinson, _A Treasury of Science_)

Did you know?
If "mayhap" looks to you like a relative of "perhaps," you're right -- the words are related. Both ultimately derive from the Middle English noun "hap," meaning "chance, fortune." "Mayhap" was formed by combining the phrase "(it) may hap" into a single word. "Hap" here is a verb essentially meaning "happen" (the word "maybe," another synonym of "mayhap" and "perhaps," was developed similarly from "may" and the verb "be"), and the verb "hap" comes from the noun "hap." "Perhaps" came about when "per" (meaning "through the agency of") was combined directly with the noun "hap" to form one word. Today "mayhap" is a rare word indeed in contrast with the very common "maybe" and "perhaps," but it does show up occasionally.

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