happeningn.
/ˈhap(ə)nɪŋ/, /ˈhapn̩ɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈhæp(ə)nɪŋ/ 1. The action of happen v.; occurrence (of an event), the fact of taking place.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > occurrence > [noun] > occurring or happening
chance1297
befallingc1374
betidingc1374
occasionc1390
happening1431
turna1475
event1601
cadence1603
turning up1628
eveniencya1646
cadency1647
coming1651
occurrence1725
eventuation1728
encounter1870
occurrency1920
1431 in J. B. Paul Registrum Magni Sigilli Scotorum (1882) II. 45/1 Gif it hapnys that the sayd toun..throuch falland case or hapnyng of ony maner cummys not to the sayd payment.
a1450 York Plays (1885) 255 He helis þame all on rawe, And all thurgh his false happenyng.
1551 T. Wilson Rule of Reason sig. Dvv By accidental, happenyng.
1561 T. Norton tr. J. Calvin Inst. Christian Relig. i. xvi. f. 59 Who doth not leaue the happening of lettes to the blindnesse of fortune.
1601 W. Cornwallis Disc. Seneca sig. A6 The euery daies hapning of such things.
1722 W. Wollaston Relig. of Nature v. 61 There are infinite chances against the happening of it, or odds that it will not happen.
1764 T. Bayes in Philos. Trans. 1763 (Royal Soc.) 53 376 The probability of any event is the ratio between the value at which an expectation depending on the happening of the event ought to be computed, and the value of the thing expected upon it's [sic] happening.
1827 T. Jarman Powell's Ess. Learning of Devises (ed. 3) II. 217 Where an estate in remainder is limited in terms of contingency, on the happening of certain events.
1885 Law Times Rep. 52 684/1 Waiting for the happening of any future event.
1909 M. H. Dziewicki in J. Wyclif De Ente 261 The Blessed rejoice over the happening of Adam's sin, the occasion of their bliss.
1939 A. K. Kurtz & H. A. Edgerton Statist. Dict. 99 Mathematically independent, unaffected by the happening of another event or by the size of another variable. Also called independent, non-contingent, and uncontingent.
2002 Asia Afr. Intelligence Wire (Business Line) (Nexis) 8 Apr. The performance of the wagering agreement must depend upon the happening or non-happening of an uncertain event.
2. Something that happens or takes place; an event or occurrence (in modern use, often one that is significant or unusual); a chance. Frequently in plural.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > occurrence > [noun] > occurrence or event
weird971
redeOE
thingOE
limpc1200
casea1250
tidingc1275
timinga1325
being?c1400
incident?1462
advenement1490
occurrent1523
accidenta1525
occurrence1539
affair1550
event1554
happening1561
événement1567
success1588
betide1590
circumstance1592
arrivage1603
eveniency1660
occurrency1671
betider1674
befalling1839
whet1849
intermezzo1851
transpiration1908
the world > existence and causation > occurrence > [noun] > occurrence or event > events
fare1340
happening1561
action1651
1561 T. Norton tr. J. Calvin Inst. Christian Relig. i. xvi. f. 60v In like manner are the happeninges of thynges to come. For as al thinges that be to come are vncertaine vnto vs, so we hang them in suspense.
1581 J. Bell tr. W. Haddon & J. Foxe Against Jerome Osorius 169 No place is left to the happenynges of fortune.
1629 J. Gaule Practique Theories Christs Predict. 107 The many and strange alterings and happenings to Men.
1749 D. Hartley Observ. Man i. iii. 338 The Happenings must bear nearly the same Ratio to the Failures.
1896 Black & White 27 June 824/2 Before the final coorious happening, there was a fire in a croft of auld Applebird's.
1907 Westm. Gaz. 30 Dec. 2/2 The Denshawi incident is not viewed by all exactly alike, but it was decidedly a regrettable happening.
1921 E. E. Cummings Let. 22 Apr. (1969) 75 The feria is..a double happening. There were the grounds..and there were the torros.
1985 R. Quirk et al. Comprehensive Gram. Eng. Lang. 197 The progressive aspect (sometimes called the durative or continuous aspect) indicates a happening in progress.
2005 R. Douglas Night Song Last Tram 304 As we ate, Ma would tell me of the happenings at the big house she cleaned over in Hillhead.
3. Originally U.S.
a. A largely improvised or spontaneous performance intended as artistic display, originating in the U.S. avant-garde of the late 1950s, then widely used in 1960s popular culture. Later also in extended use.The term was introduced by Allan Kaprow (1927–2006), U.S. artist, whose work helped to establish the concept of performance art (see performance n. Compounds).
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > entertainment > pastimes > [noun]
playeOE
gameeOE
disportc1380
sportc1443
museryc1450
pastime?1473
gaud1587
playgame1596
exercise1622
amusement1632
evagation1638
retirement1641
divertisement1642
diversiona1684
ploya1689
lounge1788
divertissement1804
happening1959
letterboxing1977
timepass1982
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > other dramatic or variety performances > [noun]
antic1580
wayang1671
light entertainment1787
take-off1845
féerie1878
showboating1909
mirthquake1911
mirthquaker1921
icecapade1940
happening1959
stripagram1981
1958 A. Kaprow in Art News Oct. 57/1 These bold creators..will disclose entirely unheard of happenings and events, found in garbage cans, police files, hotel lobbies, seen in store windows and on the streets, and sensed in dreams and horrible accidents.]
1959 A. Kaprow Let. 28 May (Univ. Rutgers RG 04/16: Rec. Office President) Box 42, Folder 19 I think you are aware of the fact that I have given up the specific art of picture-making..for what I call the making of ‘situations’ (or ‘events’ or ‘happenings’).
1959 Nation (N.Y.) 24 Oct. 260/2 The first exhibition is not of painting but is an ‘event’ consisting of eighteen ‘happenings’ by Allan Kaprow.
1962 Listener 5 Apr. 604/1 Happenings, usually staged in downtown lofts, were performances, improvised round basic ideas that left a good deal to chance and action on the night. Actors and décor mingled intimately with the audience.
1966 Observer 17 Apr. 11/4 Here are the long-term..effects of having the television cameras in the House... Politics comes to be regarded as a series of dramatic scenes. A Budget or a Bill is seen..as a happening.
1970 Daily Tel. 29 Dec. 10 Tomorrow the 1,600 delegates will see a ‘happening’ called ‘Thank God We're Normal’ performed by 70 boys and girls from..comprehensive schools in London.
1997 Boston Globe 23 Oct. (Calendar section) 24 Wayne Koestenbaum's libretto is not about people but about icons. Thus we meet Jackie O at a happening at Andy Warhol's factory.
2011 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 10 May hs17 Niebla and his band moved to Paris and scraped a living playing gigs and working in conceptual art happenings with the painter Jaume Xifra.
b. spec. (concrete). A work of art consisting of an assemblage of everyday objects and images arranged to evoke an event or situation. Cf. installation n. Additions 3.The term is particularly associated with the work of U.S. pop artist James Dine (b. 1935) and others.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > other visual arts > [noun] > assemblage
assemblage1961
happening1961
1961 W. C. Seitz Art of Assemblage 88 James Dine, in a ‘happening’ named Car Crash..has dealt with the automobile.
1962 Listener 5 Apr. 604/2 The room-sized collages called happenings or situations are works of art that actually simulate the environment.
1990 Leonardo 23 300 He uses [photo]copiers in happenings as a tool for mass-media multireproduction.
2002 Business Times Singapore (Nexis) 20 Apr. Lee displays an eclectic variety of fibre-work in the form of collages, weaves and ‘thread happenings’.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
happeningadj.
/ˈhap(ə)nɪŋ/, /ˈhapn̩ɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈhæp(ə)nɪŋ/ 1. That happens; occurring; (also) †chancing (obsolete). In modern use chiefly: that is actually or currently taking place.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > occurrence > [adjective] > occurring or happening
undergrowinga1440
occurrentc1484
happening1530
contingent1532
occursive1592
occurring1627
coming1697
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 229/1 Happenyng, aduenant.
1551 T. Wilson Rule of Reason sig. Ljv An ague may be the happenyng cause.
1593 Queen Elizabeth I tr. Boethius De Consolatione Philosophiæ (P.R.O.: SP 12/289) iv. pr. vi. f. 65 Of the succession of Chaunce, of hapning Luckes.
1872 Sunday Mag. 297/1 He is tried by the pressure of the hour, and by the hurry of the happening events sometimes even more than by the general aspect of affairs.
1915 Constructive Q. 3 879 This Darwinist and Marxist avant la lettre is a precursor of the return to religion, a return that in our days we more feel as a coming, than see as a happening, thing.
1999 L. A. Rickels Vampire Lect. 300 His perfection of the ‘adaptation of selective breeding’ as a happening event that is present tense.
2. Originally and chiefly Scottish. Casual, chance, occasional. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > causation > chance or causelessness > [adjective]
byc1050
casualc1374
fortuitc1374
fortunelc1374
fortunousc1374
causelessc1386
adventurousc1405
accidental1502
fortunable1509
happya1522
chanceable1549
occasional1569
accidentary1581
emergent1593
streave1598
contingent1604
happening1621
incidental1644
lucky1648
sporadical1654
temerarious1660
spontaneous1664
incidentarya1670
chance1676
antrin?1725
fortuitous1806
sporadic1821
windfall1845
chanced1853
blind1873
happenchance1905
happenstance1905
1621 A. Montgomerie Flyting with Polwart (Hart) sig. C2 Hapning haires, blawin widthersuns aback.
1655 in J. D. Marwick Extracts Rec. Burgh Glasgow (1881) II. 312 Gif they bring thame in at some happining tymes.
1858 J. Colquhoun Salmon Casts & Stray Shots (ed. 2) i. 16 I..sauntered down Bochastle Heath, more for the pleasure of the evening walk than from hope of a happening fish.
1872 N. Jenkins in G. Rooper Tales & Sketches iv. 90 We'll hae the chance to tread up a happening bird if we walk wide.
1900 Songs & Select. Album Edinb. Angling Club 202 On arriving at his ‘water’, the keeper—as the tone of keepers now is—despondingly informed him that there is ‘nae head (shoal) o' fish’, although at the utmost ‘there may be a happenin' beast’.
1958 J. Barth End of Road iii. 27 On Wednesday after my interview, when I woke and consulted him with a happening glance, his pain was simply Bacchic!
3. slang (originally U.S.). Characterized by the most exciting, lively, and up-to-the-minute action or style; currently in vogue, fashionable, trendy. Cf. happen v. 6b, happening n. 3.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > fashionableness > [adjective]
in (also into) request?1574
bonfacion1584
fashional?1607
of request1613
fashionablea1627
à la mode1642
all the mode1651
modish1661
in mode1664
timeish1676
of vogue1678
voguea1695
mody1701
alamodic1753
much the mode1767
tonish1778
go1784
stylish1800
bang-up1810
tippy1810
varmint1823
up to the knocker1844
gyvera1866
OK1869
fly1879
swagger1879
doggy1885
faddy1885
fantoosh1920
voguish1927
voguey1928
à la page1930
go1937
hard1938
hip1939
down1952
swinging1958
a-go-go1960
way-in1960
yé-yé1960
trendy1962
with-it1962
go-go1963
happening1965
mod1965
funky1967
together1968
fash1977
cred1987
1965 Variety 13 Oct. 52 (advt.) All of it is happening on the ‘happening place’ in New York television, WPIX TV/11.
1967 Billboard 25 Mar. 22/5 Clearly, the Cafe Au Go Go seems to be the happening place for today's music.
1977 C. McFadden Serial li. 109 Who could live anywhere else? Marin's this whole high-energy trip with all these happening people.
1987 Sunday Express Mag. 1 Feb. 13/3 ‘Me and George Michael’, she adds, lapsing into pop-speak, ‘may turn out to be a pretty happening scene.’
2000 Sunday Herald (Glasgow) 8 Oct. (Seven Days section) 10/6 Michael, apparently, is a ‘Lad-Dad’..Like ‘chick lit’, like ‘middle youth’, this is one of those transgeneric labels that claims to define something new and happening in contemporary culture.
2010 A. Urquhart Forgotten Highlander i. 24 The Palais was a happening place to be and had a great house band.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2013; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1431adj.1530