happen-so

[ hap-uhn-soh ]

noun

, South Midland and Southern U.S.

1. chance; happenstance; accident:

   Meeting you today was pure happen-so.

Word History and Origins

Origin of happen-so¹

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

Baldwin, she argued, “ought to come on back home” and actually live in the South, noting that “his Deep South origins and happen-so birth in Harlem are sufficient for any ancestor-worshiping Southerner to claim him as rightfully our own.”

From Washington Post

Almighty lucky happen-so for him, 'cause I had an old codger aboard that was just on his way to visit Billy.

From Project Gutenberg

All except one little thing about the tracks, and that was done after the murder, and might have been happen-so.

From Project Gutenberg

A wolf track on Broadway would doubtless be the doing of a very large dog, and a St. Bernard's footmark in the Rockies, twenty miles from anywhere, would most likely turn out to be the happen-so imprint of a gray wolf's foot.

From Project Gutenberg

It is a real something, not a mere happen-so or maybe-so.

From Project Gutenberg