Dictionary
Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.
behappen en · ADV
Etymology
From Middle English behappenen, equivalent to be- + happen, analogous to befall.
Meanings
-
(dialectal, not-comparable, obsolete) Perhaps, mayhap.
Behappen it ul rain.
1841, Charles Henry Hartshorne, Salopia Antiqua: Or, An Enquiry from Personal Survey Into the 'druidical,' Military, and Other Early Remains in Shropshire and the North Welsh Borders; with Observations Upon the Names of Places, and a Glossary of Words Used in the County of Salop:
behappen en · VERB
Etymology
From Middle English behappenen, equivalent to be- + happen, analogous to befall.
Meanings
-
(obsolete, transitive) To happen to, to befall.
"But why have ye," said Artegall, "forborne
Your owne good shield in daungerous dismay?
That is the greatest shame and foulest scorne,
Which unto any knight behappen may.
To loose the badge that should his deedes display."
1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene Book V LII:And where now might Timothy Tipkin sifflicate that it may behappen to be for to come from? Pummel thy pumkin, and a tell me that, Peter Grievous. Where, but out of my pouche, Gaby? That is, I first havin and holdin the wherewithalls, and the whys, and the wherefores. Do you take me now? So that forsooth, some folks may behappen to cry peccavi.
1792, Thomas Holcroft, Anna St. Ives. a Novel:
Forms