the.com/mishap
A tiny disaster wearing a polite name so nobody panics.
means A small, usually harmless accident or piece of bad luck.
from A blend of 'mis-' — the Old English prefix meaning 'wrong' or 'badly,' the same gloomy little tag that sours 'mistake' and 'misfortune' — bolted onto the Middle English 'hap,' meaning luck or chance (from Old Norse 'happ'). So a mishap is literally 'bad luck,' and 'hap' is the same root that gives us 'happen,' 'happy,' and 'perhaps' — all of them, at heart, about whatever chance throws your way.
- old roots
- From Norse hap, meaning luck or chance
- size matters
- Small enough to survive, big enough to remember
- comedy fuel
- Slapstick is mishap with perfect timing
- legal cousin
- Insurance forms prefer accident over the breezier mishap
for instance
titanic sinking — 1912 ship struck iceberg in north atlantic, 1,500+ deaths
deepwater horizon oil spill — 2010 gulf of mexico rig explosion released 4.9 million barrels of oil