perhappenstance

English

Etymology

Compound of per +‎ happenstance.

Adverb

perhappenstance (not comparable)

1. (nonstandard, humorous, rare) Perhaps.
   • 1976 Spring, George W. Smyth, “Bending Hell”, in South Dakota Review, volume 14, number 1, Vermillion, S.D.: University of South Dakota, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 90:

     "Shove it," Sam concluded, and then went out, but came in soon, from the numbing cold of the Iranian plain, where he had been assistant-in-the-way in a half-cracked but hell-bent search for the elusive and abominable, so-called, snowman, or a facsimile reasonably thereof, perhappenstance, sponsored by a genial Texas oilman who was bored with searching just underground, and wanted to get into something deeper, or higher, depending upon the depletion of his resources, his mind among them.

   • 2001 February 23, JnyVee., “Eminem Bites”, in rec.audio.pro‎^[1] (Usenet):

     and just perhappenstance why shouldn;t^[sic] YOU 'get over it' and stop supporting plagarism?

   • 2003 December 13, Coin Saver, “F/A barber quarter”, in rec.collecting.coins‎^[2] (Usenet):

     Or perhappenstance, the Three Stooges?

   • 2004, Bernard M. Patten, The Blood of a Million Christs, Bookman, →ISBN, page 126:

     Morgan probably ran away at age fourteen to live adrift in the cities, perhappenstance to dine exclusively on Twinkies, a recreational breakfast food known to the state of California to induce criminal behaviors.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:perhappenstance.

Related terms

• mayhaps
• perhappen