blissful

English

Alternative forms

• blissfull (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English blisful, bislvol, equivalent to bliss +‎ -ful.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

blissful (comparative more blissful, superlative most blissful)

1. Extremely happy; full of joy; experiencing, indicating, causing, or characterized by bliss.
   • 1738, Samuel Johnson, "London: A Poem in Imitation of the Third Satire of Juvenal", lines 25-26,

     In pleasing dreams the blissful age renew,

     And call Britannia's glories back to view;

   • 1868, Louisa May Alcott, chapter 27, in Little Women:

     She ... led a blissful life, unconscious of want, care, or bad weather, while she sat safe and happy in an imaginary world.

   • 1983, James Hijiya, "American Gravestones and Attitudes toward Death: A Brief History," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 127, no. 5., page 349,

     New England carvers between the 1720s and the 1750s transformed, step by step, the winged skull into the winged face, adding flesh to bare bone and turning the toothy grin of death into the blissful smile of a saved soul.

2. (obsolete) Blessed; glorified.
   • c1387, Geoffrey Chaucer, "The Prioress' Tale," in The Canterbury Tales,

     Thus had this widow her little son y-taught

     Our blissful Lady, Christe's mother dear,

     To worship aye

Usage notes

"Blissful" occasionally has the extra connotation that a person is extremely happy because he or she fails to recognize or accept certain adversities or other harsh realities.

Synonyms

• ecstatic
• elated
• euphoric
• joyful
• orgasmic
• overjoyed
• rapturous
• on cloud nine
• See also Thesaurus:blissful

Derived terms

• blissfully
• blissfulness

Translations

full of joy

• Bulgarian: блажен (bg) (blažen)
• Czech: blažený (cs)
• Esperanto: beata
• Finnish: autuas (fi)
• French: bienheureux (fr)
• Galician: feliz (gl)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: glückselig (de), beglückt (de)
• Mongolian: жаргалтай (žargaltaj)
• Occitan: benurós, benaürat, benastrat, benesit
• Polish: błogi (pl)
• Russian: блаже́нный (ru) (blažénnyj), счастли́вый (ru) (sčastlívyj)
• Spanish: dichoso (es), feliz (es), maravilloso (es)
• Tocharian B: sākre

References

• “blissful”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “blissful”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)
• Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary (1987-1996)

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