jolly
adjective
full of or showing high-spirited merriment
- “when hearts were young and gay”
- “a poet could not but be gay, in such a jocund company” Wordsworth
- “the jolly crowd at the reunion”
- “jolly old Saint Nick”
- “a jovial old gentleman”
- “have a merry Christmas”
- “peals of merry laughter”
- “a mirthful laugh”
noun
adverb
used as an intensifier (`jolly'' is used informally in Britain)
- “pretty big”
- “pretty bad”
- “jolly decent of him”
verb
Origin
From Middle English joli, jolif (“merry, cheerful”), from Old French joli, jolif (“merry, joyful”). For the loss of final -f in English, compare tardy, hasty, hussy, etc. It is uncertain whether the Old French word is from Old Norse jól ("a midwinter feast, Yule", hence "fest-ive"), in which case, equivalent to yule + -ive, compare Dutch jolig (“happy, festive, frolicsome, jolly”), West Frisian joelich, joalich (“merry, jolly”), Middle High German jœlich (“hooting, jubilant”). Alternatively, the Old French adjective has been conjectured to derive from a Vulgar Latin *gaudivus (from Latin gaudeō, more at joy), in which case it would require Early Old French ⟨d⟩ /ð/ to irregularly become ⟨l⟩ in jolif rather than being dropped, which is the usual case (alternatively, /l/ may be a hiatus filler inserted into expected *joïf). A possible parallel of ⟨d⟩ to ⟨l⟩ can be seen in the French name Valois, according to one hypothesis from Latin Vadensis, though this origin is itself uncertain and disputed.
Phrases
- Jolly balance
- jolly bean
- Jolly Nose
Related words
Word family
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.