hapless

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 24, 2019 is: hapless \HAP-lus\ adjective

: having no luck : [unfortunate](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unfortunate)

Examples:

"Whatever your view of Team USA's rout over Thailand or the way they celebrated every goal over that hapless opponent, the 13-0 opening victory fueled conversation and interest for Sunday's United States-Chile match." — Phil Rosenthal, The Chicago Tribune, 18 June 2019

"David Bareford got into violence design when he was living in Chicago and struggling along as 'an OK actor in a town where there were a million OK actors….' He decided not to fight those odds; instead he embraced the stage-combat skills that came from acting in Shakespeare tragedies, which usually involve kings, soldiers and other hapless figures eagerly [running](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/run%20through) one another through." — Scott Hewitt, The Columbian (Vancouver, Washington), 13 June 2019

Did you know?

Hapless literally means what you'd expect it to mean: "without hap"—[hap](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hap) being another word for [fortune](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fortune) or [luck](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/luck). Hap derives from the Old Norse word for "good luck," a word that is also the source of our [happen](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/happen) and [happy](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/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 [-less](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/-less#h5). [Ill-starred](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ill-starred) suggests bringing calamity or the threat of a terrible fate ("the ill-starred year the Great Depression began"). [Ill-fated](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ill-fated) refers only to being doomed ("the ill-fated voyage of the Titanic"). [Unlucky](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unlucky) and [luckless](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/luckless) usually apply to a person or thing notably or chronically unfortunate ("an unlucky slots player," "some luckless investors swindled in the deal").