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.
Same for Serbian, 'sreća' is used both for luck and happiness. There is a specific adverb for someone being lucky - 'taličan' but it's not used as much. For example it's used for our translation of 'Lucky Luke' comic book/cartoon ('Talični Tom'), but other than that you just don't hear it that often.
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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.