perchance, adv. (n., a.) arch.
(pəˈtʃɑːns, -æ-)
Forms: 4 par chance, par chaunce, per chance, 4–6 parchaunce, perchaunce, 5 perchauns, -chawnce, 6 parchance, perchanse, 4, 6– perchance.
[ME. a. AF. par chance (Gower Mirour 14876), f. OF. par by, and chance chance: cf. F. par hasard, also peradventure, percase, and the later perhaps.]
† 1. In a statement of fact: By chance; as it happens or happened: = peradventure adv. 1, percase 1. Obs. exc. arch.
| 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 2489 For our gude dedys er ofte done wrang,..Or parchaunce done oute of charité. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 358 It fell per chance upon a day A Rovere of the See was nome. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xlii. 15, I said, ‘Is this ȝour gouirnance, To tak men for thair luking heir?’ Bewty sayis, ‘Ȝa, schir, perchance Ȝe be my ladeis presoneir’. 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. i. ii. 5–6 Vio... Perchance he is not drown'd: What thinke you saylors? Cap. It is perchance that you your selfe were saued. 1815 W. H. Ireland Scribbleomania 165 Descending astounded, asylum to seek, She pops, as perchance, upon kind Mistress Meeke. |
2. In a conditional clause or the like (in quot. 1865, an interrogative sentence): By any chance; as may be, as is possible: = peradventure adv. 2, percase 2, perhaps 2.
| c 1400 Rom. Rose 5042 If with childe they be perchaunce. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. v. i. 75 If they but heare perchance a trumpet sound. 1676 Lister in Ray's Corr. (1848) 125 If perchance anything has escaped his diligence. 1791 Cowper Odyss. xxi. 458 Should ye hear perchance a groan. 1865 Swinburne Poems & Ball., Ilicet 31 Sleep, is it sleep perchance that covers Each face? 1870 Bryant Iliad I. iii. 102 Lest perchance He smite thee with his spear. |
3. Qualifying a statement so as to express possibility with uncertainty: It may be that; maybe, haply: = peradventure adv. 3, percase 3, perhaps 1. Used a. with the subjunctive mood or its equivalent (perchance there may, might, would be); b. with the future indic. (perchance there shall or will be); c. with the pres. and past tenses indic. (perchance there is, was, has been, etc.).
In a. the statement is already contingent, and perchance may be taken, as in 1 and 2, in its literal sense of ‘by chance’, ‘there may, might, would by chance be’; but in c. the statement is made contingent by perchance, and we cannot there substitute ‘by chance’, the meaning being ‘it may chance to be the fact that there is, was, or has been’. This is also true of b., but there the event itself being future and so subject to contingency, the use of ‘perchance’ is somewhat transitional between a. and c. The loss of the subjunctive inflexions in Eng., and the levelling of this mood in form under the indicative, makes some early examples, esp. of the past tense, doubtful between a. and c.; thus ‘perchance they had’ might mean ‘perchance they might have’; and it may have been in this way that a phrase originally = L. forte has come to be used as = forsitan. Cf. also the development in ‘it may be that he is here’, ‘may be he is here’, and (dial.) ‘he is maybe here’.
| a. 1390 Gower Conf. I. 117 It mai par chance faile. Ibid. III. 10 Per chance in such a drunkeschipe I mai be ded. c 1570 Pride & Lowl. (1841) 18 Perchaunce an issue hereon may be ioynt. a 1661 Fuller Worthies (1840) III. 159 Some perchance would assign another reason. 1719 Young Revenge ii. i, Something perchance may happen To soften all to friendship, and to love. 1835 J. H. Newman Par. Serm. (1837) I. xxi. 320 They thought death perchance might be a change for the better. a 1848 R. W. Hamilton Rew. & Punishm. viii. (1853) 375 This view may perchance be discarded. |
| b. a 1400 Evang. Nicod. 377 in Herrig Archiv LIII. 398 His blode mot on vs fall And on our childer bathe. Sir Pilate said: parchaunce so sall. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxxi. 139 Godd..will perchaunce take wreke on þam. 1542–5 Brinklow Lament. (1874) 87 Perchaunce ye wyll saye, ye seke no soche thynge thereby? 1610 Shakes. Temp. ii. ii. 17 Perchance he will not minde me. 1791 Cowper Iliad xviii. 244 Panic-seized, perchance The Trojans shall from fight desist. 1822 Shelley Calderon ii. 134 Many still Are mine, and many more, perchance shall be. |
| c. c 1400 Apol. Loll. 37 Frend, perchauns þu hawtist to wete & enquire. c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. i. 110 The lond is good, the colour nought, perchaunce. 1559 Mirr. Mag., Warwick xiii, Perchaunce thou thinkest. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. i. i. 20, 25 Fuluia perchance is angry... Perchance? Nay, and most like. 1740 C. Pitt Virg. æneid i. 779 Perchance,..He roams the towns, or wanders thro' the woods. 1858 G. Macdonald Phantastes (1878) II. xiv. 37 This shadow was perchance my missing demon. |
d. Qualifying a word or phrase, by ellipsis: = peradventure 3 b, percase 3 b, perhaps 1 b.
| 1382 Pol. Poems (Rolls) I. 266 Er he a childe put hir withinne, And perchaunce two at ones. 1390 Gower Conf. III. 354 Noght al per chance as ye it wolden. 1522 Skelton Why not to Court? 634 Parchaunce halfe a yere, And yet neuer the nere. 1602 Shakes. Ham. iii. i. 65 To dye to sleepe, To sleepe, perchance to Dreame: I, there's the rub. 1683 Wood Life 22 May (O.H.S.) III. 55 The Laboratory, perchance one of the most beautiful and useful in the world. 1862 Longfellow Wayside Inn Prel. 91 Let me in outline sketch them all, Perchance uncouthly. |
B. quasi-n.
† 1. by perchance: by chance. Obs. rare.
| 1495 Trevisa's Barth. de P.R. xvii. clxxv. (W. de W.) 717 By perchaunce it happyth that it crokyth and bendeth. |
2. The word ‘perchance’, or a statement qualified by it; an expression of uncertain possibility.
| a 1677 Barrow Serm. Wks. 1716 II. 178 Interposing..now and then his may-be's and perchances. |
C. quasi-adj. (in predicate.) Dependent on chance. nonce-use.
| 1891 J. Smith Fellowship iii. 40 There is no intention to show that the life in Christ is perchance, haphazard, something which may begin today and end tomorrow. |