Hapless

adjective

/ˈhæp.ləs/

(adjective) Unfortunate; deserving or marked by a persistent lack of luck. It typically describes a person who repeatedly suffers misfortune through no fault of their own, often carrying a faint note of pity.

✍️ Usage in a UPSC answer

The hapless smallholder, caught between erratic monsoons and exploitative middlemen, embodies the structural vulnerabilities that a robust crop insurance and minimum support price regime must be designed to mitigate.

Synonyms

unluckylucklessunfortunateill-fatedstar-crossedjinxed

Antonyms

fortunateluckyblessedprosperous

🌱 Word Family

haplessly (adv), haplessness (n), hap (n, archaic), haphazard (adj), perhaps (adv)

🔡 Root

Old Norse happ = chance, good luck; PIE kob- = to suit/succeed; -less = lacking; Middle English hap = luck

📜 Etymology

Late Middle English (c. 1400), from "hap" (meaning "chance, good luck"), itself from Old Norse "happ" ("chance, good luck"), + the suffix "-less" ("lacking"). Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *hap-, traced to PIE root *kob- ("to suit, fit, succeed").

🧠 Memory Hook

Hapless = "hap" (luck, as in mis-HAP and per-HAPs) + "-less" (without). A hapless person is, quite literally, "without luck".

👥 Society 📖 Seen in: Salient Features of Indian Society — D...

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