It's the Word of the Day podcast for May 21st.

Today's word is hapless, spelled H-A-P-L-E-S-S.

Hapless is an adjective. It means having no luck. It's a synonym of the word unfortunate.

Here's the word used in a sentence from Athlon Sports by Christy Ackert. The New York Yankees

had a nice feel-good return to their spring training home this weekend by beating up on the hapless

Tampa Bay Rays. Hapless means exactly what you'd expect it to mean without hap.

Hap being another word for fortune or luck.

Hap comes from the old Norse word for good luck,

which is also the source of the words happen and happy.

English has several words to describe those lacking good fortune,

including ill-starred, ill-fated, unlucky, and luckless. A word formed in parallel to hapless by

adding the suffix L-E-S-S-Less. Ill-starred suggests bringing calamity or the threat of a terrible fate, as in the

ill-starred year the Great Depression began. Ill-fated refers only to being doomed, as in the

ill-fated voyage of the Titanic. Unlucky and luckless usually apply to a person or thing, notably

or chronically unfortunate, as in an

unlucky slots player, some luckless investors swindled in the deal. Hapless is often imbued with a touch

of pity humor or both, for those to whom it refers, as in a hapless golly who couldn't block a shot

to save his life.

With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.

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