| 释义 |
happenstance Chiefly U.S.|ˈhæp(ə)nstəns|
[Amalgam of happening + circumstance n.]
A chance event; a coincidence. Occas. in altered form happenchance. Also attrib.
1897Outing (U.S.) XXX. 557/1, I guess it was just a ‘happenstance’. 1911Dialects Notes III. 544 Happenchance, happenstance, happening, circumstance. Used facetiously. Blend-formations. 1937John o' London's 12 Mar. 986/3 The buyer of Human Psychology..will be given the opportunity to defile his vocabulary with such terms as ‘happenstance’. 1941Sat. Even. Post 22 Mar. 24/3 Even if by happen-chance a hailstorm didn't come along and ruin the crop, there was always something to fight. 1946M. C. Self Horseman's Encycl. 306 The introduction of polo to England was pure happen-chance. 1960Listener 7 Jan. 17/2 They shrewdly refused to attribute this to happenstance. 1963D. B. Hughes Expendable Man (1964) v. 149 The abortionist hadn't killed her, he would have no need of the happenstance tool. 1965Observer (Colour Suppl.) 13 Apr. 27/2 Balloon races have a fixed beginning, all right, but their finishing line is a matter of happenstance. 1966Ogilvy & Anderson Excurs. Number Theory x. 117 Again the last fraction, which we wish to discard, is ½ (it need not have been—that was just happenstance). 1969Sci. Jrnl. May 9/3 Berry could say little, beyond suggesting that the use of seconal sleeping pills by both Schweickart and Frank Borman, who suffered a vomiting attack on the Apollo 8 flight, was probably a ‘happenstance’. 1973Tablet 17 Feb. 155/2 ‘Falsifiability’ is duly, recorded—not long after fall-out’, with which some might think positivism has a more than happenchance..connection. |