[Lexicog] haply go luckily

[David Tuggy]

Interesting. I hadn't heard about horses being part of a verb to go. 
Makes plenty of sense, though. And even of a verb meaning be! Is it an 
honorific be? Nahuatl has some honorific be's that are odd: one means 
literally "be falling w.r.t. oneself"; it is probably related to other 
"fall" verbs meaning "lie" (as in "lie there", not "tell a lie"). For 
"go" they use something parallel to "betake oneself".

Probably (or, at least, mayhap) you are right etymologically that the 
"happy" of "happy-go-lucky" owes more to the hap of happen than to that 
of happy as we now know the word. Hap was much like "luck", as I read it 
in old stuff (though I'm no expert), so "happy" probably is parallel in 
formation to "lucky". I.e. one whose happenstances are positive *is* 
"happy" (and therefore, secondarily, might be expected to *feel* 
"happy"). I would expect, however, that most present day speakers would 
have operative a folk-etymology like mine, where the present-day, 
emotional "happy" is  more active. In any case, it is clear that 
"happy-go-lucky" now designates an attitude of taking things positively 
rather than a situation in which things are, objectively considered, 
positive.

--David T

Simon Wickham-Smith wrote:

> hi David -
>
>
> On 9 Sep 2005, at 19:37, lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com 
> <mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com> wrote:
>
>> It'd be interesting to compare what words languages use for some of 
>> these concepts. In Spanish "hacer" 'do/make' is used for the imitative 
>> animal sound kind of construction. In some Nahuatl it's 'say', others 
>> prefer that you specify singing or shouting or something like that. In 
>> some Nahuatl "tlen kichiwa" (lit. 'what does it/she/he do') means 
>> "what's it/she/he like?"
>
>
> yes, I was trying to remember where I've come across this in Tibetan.  
> I can't remember the source at the moment, but I am sure I've seen the 
> non-honorific word for "to go or walk" (ie /'gro/) used for "say".  I 
> suspect that the honorific word /phebs/ is not used in this sense;  
> moreover, on an even more exalted level, the thought that the Dalai 
> Lama himself, one of very few people for whom the verb /chibs 
> 'gyur/ can be used would, like, go "nice weather here in Dharamsala, 
> eh?" is unlikely :)
>
> A word about /chibs 'gro/, which is used generally of HH's movement:  
> it's the honorific for "ride a horse" too, /chibs/ being the hon for 
> horse.  You find that in Mongolian too, where /morilox/ (</mori/, a 
> horse) means to travel or be (ie stative and nonstative at the same time).
>
> And about happy-go-lucky while I'm on a roll, I was thinking too that 
> "happy" is cognate with "happen", only relatively recently assuming 
> its present meaning.  So the idea of "blitheness" would fit with just 
> taking things as they happen (or come).
>
> Si
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