blithe

See also: bliþe and Blithe

English

WOTD – 2 July 2021

Etymology

From Middle English blithe (“glad, happy, joyful; causing joy, joyous; gentle, mild; gracious, merciful; bright, shining; beautiful, fair”) [and other forms],^[1] from Old English blīþe (“happy, gentle”), from Proto-West Germanic *blīþī, from Proto-Germanic *blīþiz (“friendly; gentle, mild; pleasing”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰlī- (“fine; light; pleasant”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“shiny; white”).^[2] Cognate with Saterland Frisian bliede (“glad, cheerful, merry”), West Frisian bliid (“cheerful, glad”), Dutch blij (“happy”), German Low German blied (“happy, lucky”).

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /blaɪð/, /blaɪθ/
Audio (Received Pronunciation): (file)
Audio (General American): (file)
Rhymes: -aɪð, -aɪθ

Adjective

blithe (comparative blither, superlative blithest)

Casually careless or indifferent; showing a lack of concern; nonchalant.
She had a blithe disregard of cultures outside the United States.
- 1913–1921, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, “England, My England”, in England My England and Other Stories, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Seltzer, published 24 October 1922, →OCLC, page 23:
  From mother and nurse it was a guerilla^[sic] gunfire of commands, and blithe, quicksilver disobedience from the three blonde, never-still little girls.
- 2026, Michael Falk, “Wikilambda the ultimate: the Wikimedia foundation’s search for the perfect language”, in AI & Society: Knowledge, Culture and Communication, →DOI:
  In this article, I examine the documentation and source code of Wikilambda to critique both its ideals and its implementation. There is in fact an intimate link between the project’s ideals and its blithe ignorance of “decades of programming language research.” The project expresses, in a typically extreme way, a certain kind of hacker utopianism.
(chiefly Scotland, elsewhere dated or literary) Cheerful, happy.
- c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv], page 47, column 2:
  And now ſweet Emperour be blithe againe,
  And bury all thy feare in my deuiſes.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 610–613:
  For that fair femal Troop thou ſawſt, that ſeemd
  Of Goddeſſes, ſo blithe, ſo ſmooth, ſo gay,
  Yet empty of good wherein conſiſts,
  Womans domeſtic honour and chief praiſe; […]
- 1725, Homer, “Book I”, in [Elijah Fenton], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 26, lines 211–214:
  Shou'd he return, that troop ſo blithe and bold,
  With purple robes inwrought, and ſtiff with gold,
  Precipitant in fear, wou'd wing their flight,
  And curſe their cumbrous pride's unwieldy weight.
- 1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “Introduction to Canto Second: To the Rev. John Marriot, M.A.”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, →OCLC, page 63:
  But not more blythe than sylvan court,
  Than we have been at humbler sport;
  Though small our pomp, and mean our game,
  Our mirth, dear Marriot, was the same.
- 1816, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Tales of My Landlord, […], volume III (Old Mortality), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for William Blackwood, […]; London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, pages 85–86:
  Tarry, tarry, ye wha were aye sae blythe to be at the meetings of the saints, and wad ride every muir in Scotland to find a conventicle.
- 1820 June (date written), Percy Bysshe Shelley, “To a Skylark”, in Prometheus Unbound […], London: C[harles] and J[ames] Ollier […], published 1820, →OCLC, stanza 1, page 201:
  Hail to thee, blithe spirit!
  Bird thou never wert,
  That from heaven, or near it,
  Pourest thy full heart
  In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.
- 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Five. The End of It.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […], →OCLC, page 158:
  He looked so irresistibly pleasant, in a word, that three or four good-humoured fellows said, "Good morning, sir! A merry Christmas to you!" And Scrooge said often afterwards, that of all the blithe sounds he had ever heard, those were the blithest in his ears.
- 1876 June, Mark Twain, “The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut”, in The Atlantic‎^[1]:
  I was feeling blithe, almost jocund.
- 1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter III, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume I, London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC, phase the first (The Maiden), page 31:
  To-night, however, she was even in a blither mood than usual. There was a dreaminess, a preoccupation, an exaltation, in the maternal look which the girl could not understand.
(obsolete) Fair, beautiful, comely; gracious, pleasant and attractive in manner.
- 1878 [1584], Clement Robinson, “A new Courtly Sonet, of the Lady Greensleeues” (stanza 10), in Edward Arber, editor, A Handful of Pleasant Delights:
  Thy garters fringed with the golde,
  And siluer aglets hanging by,
  Which made thee blithe for to beholde,
  And yet thou wouldst not loue me.
- a. 1645, John Milton, “L’Allegro”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646, →OCLC, page 31:
  There on Beds of Violets blew,
  And freſh-blown Roſes waſht in dew,
  Fill'd her with thee a daughter fair,
  So buckſom, blith, and debonair.

Alternative forms

blythe (obsolete)

Derived terms

blitheful
blitheless
blithely
blithen
blitheness
blither (“one who makes others blithe”) (obsolete, rare)
blithesome
Blythe
overblithe
unblithe

Related terms

bliss

Translations

casually careless or indifferent; showing a lack of concern

Bulgarian: безгрижен (bg) (bezgrižen)
Catalan: descurós, indiferent (ca), descurat (ca)
Dutch: onverschillig (nl)
French: indifférent (fr), négligent (fr)
Italian: indifferente (it)
Māori: arokore
Russian: беспе́чный (ru) (bespéčnyj), беззабо́тный (ru) (bezzabótnyj), легкомы́сленный (ru) (lexkomýslennyj), небре́жный (ru) (nebréžnyj), несерьёзный (ru) (neserʹjóznyj)
Spanish: indiferente (es)

cheerful, happy — see also cheerful,‎ happy

Chinese:
Mandarin: 无所谓 (zh) (wúsuǒwèi)
Dutch: blij (nl)
French: allègre (fr), content (fr), gai (fr), joyeux (fr)
Kyrgyz: бактылуу (ky) (baktıluu), шайыр (ky) (şayır)
Low German:
German Low German: blied
Russian: счастли́вый (ru) (sčastlívyj), весёлый (ru) (vesjólyj), жизнера́достный (ru) (žiznerádostnyj)
Spanish: alegre (es), feliz (es)

References

^ “blīthe, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
^ Compare “blithe, adj., n., and adv.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1887; “blithe, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

thible

Scots

Etymology

From Middle English blithe, from Old English blīþe, from Proto-West Germanic *blīþī, from Proto-Germanic *blīþiz. Cognate with Danish blid, Dutch blij, Icelandic blíður. Compare bliss.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /blaɪð/
Rhymes: -aɪð

Adjective

blithe (comparative blither, superlative blithest)

Happy
A howp ye haed a blithe birthday
I hope you had a happy birthday

[1] “blīthe, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

[2] Compare “blithe, adj., n., and adv.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1887; “blithe, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

[1]

[2]