hap - From Ulster to America
Source: From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish Heritage of American English
Author: Michael Montgomery
Comments: From Ulster to America recounts the lasting impact eighteenth-century settlers from Ulster have made on the development of the English language of the United States. The book documents over 500 vocabulary items contributed to American English by these ‘Scotch-Irish’ settlers. Each ‘shared’ term with its meaning is authenticated by quotations from both sides of the Atlantic. This searchable online version of his book takes its text from the dictionary part of the second edition published by the Ullans Press in 2017.
hap n A covering, especially bedclothes (in the U.S. a coverlet or quilt). Hence vb To tuck in bed, wrap up in; to put on a covering, as a cloak or blanket for warmth; surround. [oed hap vb ‘to cover up or over; to cover for warmth, as for extra clothing or bed-clothes, to wrap’ 14th century→, now only Scottish and dialect, n ‘a covering of any kind’ northern dialect, 1724→; dost hap n2 ‘a covering’ 1593→; dare n chiefly western Pennsylvania; lausc Pennsylvania]
Ulst.:
1722 Starrat Epistle 71 Right tozylie was set to ease my Stumps, / Well hap’d with Bountith-hose and twa soll’d Pumps.
1880 Patterson Antrim/Down Glossary 49 = (1) a covering, as a cloak or a blanket; (2) to cover, to wrap up in muffling or bed-clothes.
1881 Hart Mere Irish 157 He was happed up in his coat to keep the cowld out, and snoring like mad.
c1910 Byers Glossary = to cover, enwrap, wrap up in muffling or in bed clothes; to envelop, surround: ‘hap up a child’ = to tuck in the bedclothes round a child; bed-happin’s = bedclothes.
1920 McCallin Ulster Plenishing 56 The oul’ man o’ the house was snugly happed-up in the Meetin’-House Green.
1921 Doyle Ulster Childhood 154 Tell him that I’ll not go out this night, but will lie here warm and well happed till the morning.
1937 Rowley Tales of Mourne 110-11 The little house looked snug and gay, tucked comfortably under the shoulder of the hill, and happed in all the green bravery of the young larch and birch.
1942 Bangor Words 39 = a cover, or to cover up: ‘That rug will make a fine hap for the car’; ‘It’s a very cold night, see and hap yourself up well’ (put on a heavy coat and muffler, and use a rug if going in a car or other conveyance).
1991 O’Kane You Don’t Say 67 = to cover with clothes, to wrap up; to tuck around with blankets: ‘You’re well happed up today’. (When potatoes were stored outside in pits or clamps they used to be covered with straw or rushes, then happed with soil to keep out frost.)
2000 McBride Ulster Scots 32 = wrap up warmly.
2014 Fenton Hamely Tongue 113 = to swaddle, cover with bedclothes; happed up = comfortably tucked in, buried.
U.S.:
1916 Heydrick Pennsylvania 338 = a bed ‘comforter’: ‘There are two blankets and a hap on the bed’.
1930 Shoemaker 1300 Penn Words 28 = bed covering of woolen material.
1949 Kurath Word Geog East US 61 In the mountains of central Pennsylvania hap, one of the few Scotch-Irish words, is in common use beside comfort.
1982 McCool Pittsburghese 15 = a comforter or quilt, as in ‘I need my hap to take a nap’.
