Word of the Day

: July 24, 2017

haphazard

adjective hap-HAZZ-erd

What It Means

: marked by lack of plan, order, or direction

haphazard in Context

"… his intense work ethic has made such a feat of releasing back-to-back projects appear effortless, conscious and polished, as opposed to what could have been … a haphazard effort scrapping together 34 assorted tracks from his never-ending archive." — Billboard.com, 24 Feb. 2017

"Once the taxidermy is set up and artists escorted out, the doors to the exhibit hall are closed.… The hall is large and chilly, the scene is otherworldly, a haphazard zoo suspended in time, bald eagles perched beside African lions reclining beside wild turkeys standing beside trunkfish swimming alongside cape buffalo and snow leopards." — Christopher Borrelli, The Chicago Tribune, 28 May 2017

Did You Know?

The hap in haphazard comes from an English word that means "happening," as well as "chance or fortune," and that derives from the Old Norse word happ, meaning "good luck." Perhaps it's no accident that hazard also has its own connotations of luck: while it now refers commonly to something that presents danger, at one time it referred to a dice game similar to craps. (The name ultimately derives from the Arabic al-zahr, meaning "the die.") Haphazard first entered English as a noun (again meaning "chance") in the 16th century, and soon afterward was being used as an adjective to describe things with no apparent logic or order.