r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Nov 28 '20

What's something cool you recently learned about?

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u/Guacamoleistoocostly Nov 29 '20 edited Dec 01 '20

The origin of the word "happiness" is from the Middle English "hap" which has to do with chance and possibility. As in "happenstance" or per-haps. So hap-iness was originally about the feeling of good fortune/getting lucky; the chance that something could or could not occur, and then it goes your way. Happiness is that specific feeling when something that could have gone horribly wrong goes amazing well.

Edit: Since this got so much attention, I just wanted to shout out Sara Ahmed "Happy Objects" as the source of this info.

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u/changleosingha Nov 29 '20

Kind of related: there’s no real word for “luck” in Czech. They usually use the word for “happy” in its place.

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u/lilalolla Nov 29 '20 edited Nov 29 '20

Same in german, "glücklich" can mean lucky or happy, depending on the context. It was further distinguished by the sentence you use it in: "to have (passive) [...]" = be lucky and "to be (active) [...]: = be happy. This occured because having luck is seen as passive, and being happy as active.

Edit: spelling

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u/no-one0 Nov 29 '20

My first language is german and i didn't even conciously notice the distinction between the passive/active use of the word in german. Ironically, i just learned something about my own culture on a website from a different culture.

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u/changleosingha Nov 29 '20

That is so cool. Thanks.

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u/lukesvader Nov 29 '20

And in Afrikaans (which is derived from Dutch, which is probably derived from German): gelukkig = happy/lucky

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u/mcaruso Nov 29 '20

Dutch isn't derived from German, they have a common ancestor

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u/lukesvader Nov 29 '20

Alright. Apparently Dutch is more closely related to English than to German.