Etymology

happy

hap·py
H4A1P3P3Y4

Today it means: Having a feeling arising from a consciousness of well-being or of enjoyment; enjoying good of any kind, such as comfort, peace, or tranquillity; blissful, contented, joyous. Full definition →

Middle English happy ← Old Norse happ ← Proto-Germanic *hampą
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*kob-
  2. Proto-Germanic*hampą
  3. Old Norsehapp
  4. Middle Englishhap
  5. Middle Englishhappy
  6. English todayhappy

From Middle English happy (“fortunate, happy”), perhaps an alteration of Middle English happyn, happen (“fortunate, happy”), possibly related to or from Old Norse heppinn (“fortunate, happy”); and potentially assimilated to be equivalent to hap (“chance, luck, fortune”) + -y. Compare also Icelandic heppinn (“lucky”), Faroese heppin (“fortunate, lucky, happy”), Norwegian Nynorsk heppen (“lucky”), Scots happin (“fortunate, blessed”). See further at hap.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.