behappen

From Middle English behappenen, equivalent to be- +‎ happen, analogous to befall.

• Rhymes: -æpən

behappen (third-person singular simple present behappens, present participle behappening, simple past and past participle behappened)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To happen to, to befall.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene Book V LII:

     "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."

   • 1792, Thomas Holcroft, Anna St. Ives. a Novel:

     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.

behappen (not comparable)

1. (dialect or obsolete) Perhaps, mayhap.
   • 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 it ul rain.