different between gaiety vs laughter

English

Etymology

From French gaieté, from French gai

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??e?.?.ti/, /??e?.?.ti/
• Hyphenation: gai?e?ty
• Rhymes: -e??ti

Noun

gaiety (countable and uncountable, plural gaieties)

1. (dated, uncountable) The state of being happy or merry.

2. (dated, countable) Merrymaking or festivity.

Synonyms

• (state of being happy): gayness

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• laughtre (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English laughter, laghter, la?ter, from Old English hleahtor (“laughter, jubilation, derision”), from Proto-Germanic *hlahtraz (“laughter”), from Proto-Indo-European *klek-, *kleg- (“to shout”). Cognate with German Gelächter (“laughter, hilarity, merriment”), Danish and Norwegian latter (“laughter”), Icelandic hlátur (“laughter”). More at laugh.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?l??ft?/
• (US) enPR: l?f?t?r, IPA^(key): /?læft?/
• Rhymes: -??ft?(r)

Noun

laughter (usually uncountable, plural laughters)

1. The sound of laughing, produced by air so expelled; any similar sound.
2. A movement (usually involuntary) of the muscles of the laughing face, particularly of the lips, and of the whole body, with a peculiar expression of the eyes, indicating merriment, satisfaction or derision, and usually attended by a sonorous and interrupted expulsion of air from the lungs.

   • The act of laughter, which is caused by a sweet contraction of the muscles of the face, and a pleasant agitation of the vocal organs, is not merely, or totally within the jurisdiction of ourselves.

   • Archly the maiden smiled, and with eyes overrunning with laughter.

3. (archaic) A reason for merriment.

Usage notes

Laughter is statistically the happiest English language word on Twitter according to the Hedonometer, an online tool that measures happiness, with an overall happiness score of 8.5 out of 9, followed by happiness, which scored 8.44, and love, which scored 8.42.

Related terms

• laugh

Translations

Anagrams

• laughtre

Middle English

Alternative forms

• (Early ME) lehter, lihter, leihter, lahter, leahter, hleiter
• lauhtre, laghter, la?ter, lau?ter, laughtere, lau?tere, laghtre, laughtre, lei?tir, la?tir, lau?tur, laughtir

Etymology

From Old English hleahtor, from Proto-Germanic *hlahtraz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?lau?xt?r/, /?l?i?xt?r/, /?laxt?r/, /?lixt?r/

Noun

laughter (plural laughtres)

1. Laughter; the production of laughs or snickers.

2. An instance or bout of laughing or laughter.
3. A humorous matter; something worthy of being derided.

Descendants

• English: laughter
• Scots: lachter, lauchter

References

• “laughter, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-19.