different between comfortable vs glad

English

Alternative forms

• comfterble / comftorble (eye dialect)

Etymology

From Middle English comfortable, from Old French confortable, from conforter. See also comfort.

Pronunciation

• (General American, Canada)
  • enPR: k?mf't?bl, k?mf't?rbl, k?m'f?rt?bl, k?m'f?t?bl
  • IPA^(key): /?k?mf.t?.b?l/, /?k?mf.t??.b?l/, /?k?m.f??.t?.b?l/, /?k?m.f?.t?.b?l/
• (Received Pronunciation)
  • enPR: k?mf't?bl IPA^(key): /?k?mf.t?.b?l/, [?k???f.t???.b??]
  • enPR: k?m'f?t?bl IPA^(key): /?k?m.f?.t?.b?l/
• (General New Zealand)
  • enPR: k?mf't?bl
  • IPA^(key): /?k?mf.t?.b?l/, [?k???f.t?.bl?], [?k???.f??.b?]

Adjective

comfortable (comparative comfortabler or more comfortable, superlative comfortablest or most comfortable)

1. Providing physical comfort and ease; agreeable. [from 18^thc.]
2. In a state of comfort and content. [from 18^thc.]

   • A great bargain also had been […] the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire. In fact, that arm-chair had been an extravagance of Mrs. Bunting. She had wanted her husband to be comfortable after the day's work was done, and she had paid thirty-seven shillings for the chair.

3. (obsolete) Comforting, providing comfort; consolatory. [14^th-19^thc.]
   • 1699, John Dryden, Tales from Chaucer

     a comfortable provision made for their subsistence

4. Amply sufficient, satisfactory. [from 17^thc.]
5. (obsolete) Strong; vigorous; valiant.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Wyclif to this entry?)
6. (obsolete) Serviceable; helpful.

Usage notes

Although the word comfortable looks (etymonically) like one of its senses could be synonymous with consolable, it does not have that sense; the absence of that sense is simply a lexical gap. In parallel, the same is true of comfortability and consolability, as well as uncomfortable and inconsolable.

Synonyms

• (providing/enjoying comfort): comforting, comfy, cozy, eathful, restful, snug, cushy
• (safely reliable): safe

Antonyms

• comfortless, uncomfortable

Derived terms

Related terms

• comforter
• discomfort

Translations

Noun

comfortable (plural comfortables)

1. (US) A stuffed or quilted coverlet for a bed; a comforter.

Middle English

Etymology

From Old French confortable, from conforter.

Adjective

comfortable

1. comfortable

Descendants

• English: comfortable

English

Etymology

From Middle English glad, gled, from Old English glæd (“shining; bright; cheerful; glad”), from Proto-Germanic *gladaz (“shiny; gleaming; radiant; happy; glossy; smooth; flat”), from Proto-Indo-European *g?lad?-, from *??elh?- (“to shine”).

Cognate with Scots gled, glaid (“shining; bright; glad”), Saterland Frisian glääd (“smooth; sleek”), West Frisian glêd (“smooth”), Dutch glad (“smooth; sleek; slippery”), German glatt (“smooth; sleek; slippery”), Danish, Norwegian and Swedish glad (“glad; happy; cheerful”), Icelandic glaður (“glad; joyful; cheery”), Latin glaber (“smooth; hairless; bald”). Doublet of glatt.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?læd/
• Rhymes: -æd

Adjective

glad (comparative gladder or more glad, superlative gladdest or most glad)

1. Pleased, happy, gratified.

   • A wise son maketh a glad father.

   • 1595, William Shakespeare, Richard II, Act III Scene 2

     Glad am I that your highness is so arm'd / To bear the tidings of calamity.

   • "I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. Then I ran away and sold papers in the streets, and anything else that I could pick up a few coppers by—except steal. I never did that. I always made up my mind I'd be a big man some day, and—I'm glad I didn't steal."

2. (obsolete) Having a bright or cheerful appearance; expressing or exciting joy; producing gladness.
   • 1590, Philip Sidney, Arcadia

     Her conversation / More glad to me than to a miser money is.

Antonyms

• sorrowful
• sad
• downcast
• peevish
• cranky
• heavy
• depressed

Derived terms

• engladden
• gladden
• gladly

Translations

Verb

glad (third-person singular simple present glads, present participle gladding, simple past and past participle gladded)

1. (archaic, transitive) To make glad

   Synonyms: cheer up, gladden, exhilarate

   • that which gladded all the warrior train

   • 1922, A. E. Housman, Epithalamium, line 3

     God that glads the lover's heart

Breton

Alternative forms

• gwlad

Etymology

From Middle Breton gloat (“kingdom, wealth”), from Proto-Brythonic *gwlad, from Proto-Celtic *wlatis (“sovereignty”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?wélh?tis ~ *h?wl?h?téy-, from the root *h?welh?-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?l??t/

Noun

glad f (plural gladoù)

1. arable land
2. patrimony, estate
3. (archaic) territory, country
4. (archaic) feudal domain

Inflection

Danish

Etymology

From Old Norse glaðr.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?lad/, [??læð]
• Rhymes: -ad

Adjective

glad (neuter glad, plural and definite singular attributive glade, comparative gladere, superlative (predicative) gladest, superlative (attributive) gladeste)

1. happy, glad

References

• “glad” in Den Danske Ordbog

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch glat, from Old Dutch *glad, from Proto-Germanic *gladaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?l?t/
• Hyphenation: glad
• Rhymes: -?t

Adjective

glad (comparative gladder, superlative gladst)

1. smooth, polished
2. slippery

Inflection

Derived terms

• gladheid
• gladjanus
• spekglad
• spiegelglad

Adverb

glad

1. completely, entirely (mostly along with verbs and adjective with a negative meaning)

Usage notes

The usage as an adverb is highly restricted to verbs such as vergeten (“to forget”) and bederven (“to spoil, to rot”) and adjectives such as mis (“wrong, incorrect”) and verkeerd (“wrong, incorrect”).

Middle English

Alternative forms

• glade, gladde, glaid, gled

Etymology

From Old English glæd, from Proto-West Germanic *glad.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?la?d/, /?lad/

Adjective

glad

1. joyful, merry, happy

Descendants

• English: glad
• Scots: gled, glaid
• Yola: glaude

References

• “gl??d, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Old Norse glaðr

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /????/, /?l??/

Adjective

glad (neuter singular glad, definite singular and plural glade, comparative gladere, indefinite superlative gladest, definite superlative gladeste)

1. happy, glad

References

• “glad” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Old Norse glaðr. Akin to English glad.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?l??/

Adjective

glad (neuter singular glad, definite singular and plural glade, comparative gladare, indefinite superlative gladast, definite superlative gladaste)

1. happy, glad

References

• “glad” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old Saxon

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *gladaz

Adjective

glad

1. glad

Declension

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *gold?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?lâ?d/

Noun

gl?d f (Cyrillic spelling ?????)

1. hunger

   ko radi, ne boji se gladi

Declension

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Swedish glaþer, from Old Norse glaðr, from Proto-Germanic *gladaz, from Proto-Indo-European *g?lad?-, derivation of Proto-Indo-European *g?el- (“to shine”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?l??d/

Adjective

glad (comparative gladare, superlative gladast)

1. happy, glad

Declension

Anagrams

• lagd