felicity
See also: Felicity
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from Old French felicite, from Latin felicitās (“luck”), from felix (“lucky”).
Noun[edit]
felicity (uncountable)
- Happiness.
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1814 July, [Jane Austen], chapter I, in Mansfield Park: A Novel. In Three Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for T[homas] Egerton, Military Library, Whitehall, OCLC 39810224, page 2:
- […] Mr. and Mrs. Norris began their career of conjugal felicity with very little less than a thousand a year.
- 1862, George Long, translation of Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book V:
- For two reasons then it is right to be content with that which happens to thee; the one, because it was done for thee and prescribed for thee, and in a manner had reference to thee, originally from the most ancient causes spun with thy destiny; and the other, because even that which comes severally to every man is to the power which administers the universe a cause of felicity and perfection, nay even of its very continuance.
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- Apt and pleasing style in writing, speech, etc.
- Something that is either a source of happiness or particularly apt.
- (semiotics, semiology) Reproduction of a sign with fidelity.
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The quotation was rendered with felicity.
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2007 August 7, Joshua Ferris, “Table for two”, in New York Times[1]:
- The season’s main attraction, the felicities of the sun, dimmed in the light of our competition and our growing friendliness.
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Antonyms[edit]
- (happiness): infelicity
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from "felicity"
Translations[edit]
happiness — see happiness
apt and pleasing style in writing, speech, etc.
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
