English → Latin
“happen” in Latin
cadōto fall, to fall out; to fall in battle, die, be slain, fall so as to be unable to rise; to be frustrated, fail, to be oaccidōto fall down, upon, at or near; descend; to happen (to), take place, occur, befallcontingōto touch on all sides, take hold of, come into contact with; to reach (by moving), attain to, come to, arrive at, meet wēveniōto happen, occur; to come forth; to happen to, befall (someone)faciōto do (particularly as a specific instance or occasion of doing); to make, construct, fashion, frame, build, erect; to mtempusa time (a portion or period of time); time; the kairos, right time, due season, due time, proper time, appointed time, o
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
happen
cadere: accidere (to come to pass, of that which occurs by chance; mostly of unlucky events, but also of happy ones; accidere sometimes with the addition of casu): contingere (of occurrences that are wished for, and happy events): evenire (to come forth, happen, result; of cause and effect): usu venire (of facts which anybody experiences. ☞ Not usu evenire; vid Gernhard., Cic., Cat. Maj., 3, 7; Bremi, Nep., Hannib., 12, 3): fieri (to be done). Cases or events will happen, incidunt causae, tempora (☞ contingunt casus not Latin). It happened that, etc., forte evenit or casu accidit, ut, etc.: to happen to mention anything, in mentionem alicujus rei incidere: as it generally happen, ut fit.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for happen?
- The usual Latin words for “happen” are cadō, accidō, contingō; also ēveniō, faciō, tempus. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.