Word of the Day!

peradventure [pur-uhd-ven-cher, per-]

noun:
1 chance, doubt, or uncertainty.
2 surmise
adverb:
(archaic) it may be; maybe; possibly; perhaps

Examples:

Peradventure they make sales on the January 31, they must ensure that they deposit the money in banks before the close of the working hours because old notes would cease to be legal tender from February 1, 2023. (Fear, anxiety as deadline to deposit old notes approaches, Nigerian Tribune, August 2022)

He could not feel any real happiness until he learned beyond peradventure that all was well. (Edward S Ellis, The Young Ranchers)

The trumpet and the opening coffin indicate peradventure the resurrection. (W T Vincent, In Search Of Gravestones Old And Curious)

My finger, pointed at this man, would have hurled him from his pulpit into a dungeon, thence, peradventure, to the gallows! (Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter)

"Only," continued the postmaster, "if you will put up with a little carriage I have, I will harness an old blind horse who has still his legs left, and peradventure will draw you to the house of M. (Alexandre Dumas, The Man in the Iron Mask)

Origin:

Middle English peraventure, paraventure (late 14c), per auenture (c 1300), from Old French par aventure. Refashioned 17c as though from Latin. (Online Etymology Dictionary)

When Middle English speakers borrowed par aventure from Anglo-French (in which language it means, literally, 'by chance'), it was as an adverb meaning 'perhaps' or 'possibly.' Before long, the word was anglicized to peradventure, and turned into a noun as well. The adverb is now archaic, though Washington Irving and other writers were still using it in the 19th century. 'If peradventure some straggling merchant ... should stop at his door with his cart load of tin ware....,' writes Irving in A History of New York. The noun senses we use today tend to show up in the phrase 'beyond peradventure' in contexts relating to proving or demonstrating something. The 'chance' sense is usually used in the phrase 'beyond peradventure of doubt.' (Merriam-Webster)