different between happy vs excellent

English

Etymology

From Middle English happy (“fortunate, happy”), perhaps an alteration of Middle English happyn, happen (“fortunate, happy”), from Old Norse heppinn (“fortunate, happy”); assimilated to be equivalent to hap (“chance, luck, fortune”) +? -y. Compare also Icelandic heppinn (“lucky”), Scots happin (“fortunate, blessed”). See further at hap.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?hæpi?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?hæpi/
• Rhymes: -æpi
• Hyphenation: hap?py

Adjective

happy (comparative happier or more happy, superlative happiest or most happy)

1. Having a feeling arising from a consciousness of well-being or of enjoyment; enjoying good of any kind, such as comfort, peace, or tranquillity; blissful, contented, joyous.
   • 1731, Thomas Bayes, Divine Benevolence: or, An Attempt to Prove that the Principal End of the Divine Providence and Government is the Happiness of His Creatures: Being an Answer to a Pamphlet, Entitled, Divine Rectitude; or, An Inquiry Concerning the Moral Perfections of the Deity. With a Refutation of the Notions therein Advanced Concerning Beauty and Order, the Reason of Punishment, and the Necessity of a State of Trial antecedent to Perfect Happiness, London: Printed for John Noon, at the White-Hart in Cheapside, near Mercers-Chapel, OCLC 642498368; quoted in Andrew I. Dale, Most Honourable Remembrance: The Life and Work of Thomas Bayes (Studies and Sources in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences), New York, N.Y.: Springer, 2003, ISBN 978-0-387-00499-0, page 138:

     […] For the most happy universe is not one that consists of the greatest possible number of the most happy beings only; but one that consists of that, and the greatest possible number of beings next inferior to the first rank, and so downward, till we come to those that approach the nearest to insensible matter.
2. Experiencing the effect of favourable fortune; favored by fortune or luck; fortunate, lucky, propitious.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)
3. Content, satisfied (with or to do something); having no objection (to something).
4. (Of acts, speech, etc.) Appropriate, apt, felicitous.
   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 58:

     ‘I had the happy notion of adding an egg,’ Williams shouted back. ‘It poaches in the soup. Not unlike an Italian stracciatella. Singularly toothsome...’

5. (in combination) Favoring or inclined to use.
6. (rare, of people, often followed by "at" or "in") Dexterous, ready, skilful.

Usage notes

• (contented, joyous): Said of people, hours, times, thoughts, etc.
• (fortunate, lucky): Said of efforts, expedients, omens, ventures, etc.

Alternative forms

• happie (obsolete)

Synonyms

• (contented, joyous): cheerful, content, delighted, elated, exultant, glad, joyful, jubilant, merry, orgasmic
• (fortunate, lucky): fortunate, lucky, propitious
• See also Thesaurus:happy

Antonyms

• (contented, joyous): blue, depressed, down, miserable, moody, morose, sad, unhappy
• (fortunate, lucky): unfortunate, unlucky, unpropitious
• (content, satisfied): disenchanted, dissatisfied
• (appropriate, apt): inappropriate, inapt, unfelicitous

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? German: happy
• ? Welsh: hapus (calque)
• ? Japanese: ????

Translations

Noun

happy (plural happies)

1. (informal, rare) A happy event, thing, person, etc.

Verb

happy (third-person singular simple present happies, present participle happying, simple past and past participle happied)

1. (intransitive, informal) Often followed by up: to become happy; to brighten up, to cheer up.
2. (transitive, informal) Often followed by up: to make happy; to brighten, to cheer, to enliven.

Synonyms

• (to make happy): happify

Further reading

• Happy (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

German

Etymology

Borrowed from English happy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?h?pi/

Adjective

happy (comparative happyer, superlative am happysten)

1. (colloquial, chiefly predicative) glad; satisfied; momentarily happy

Usage notes

• The German word is used as a synonym of froh (“glad, momentarily happy”) rather than glücklich (“happy, both momentarily and generally in life”).
• On the rare occasion that this adjective is used attributively, the positive form happy typically remains undeclined, whereas the comparation forms are declined in the normal fashion.

English

Etymology

From Middle English excellent, from Old French excellent, from Latin excell?ns (“elevated, exalted”), present participle of excell? (“elevate, exult”), equivalent to excel +? -ent.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??ks?l?nt/, /??ks?l?nt/

Adjective

excellent (comparative excellenter or more excellent, superlative excellentest or most excellent)

1. Having excelled, having surpassed.
2. Of higher or the highest quality; splendid.

   • A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; as, again, the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire.

3. Exceptionally good of its kind.

4. Superior in kind or degree, irrespective of moral quality.
   • 1754-1762, David Hume, The History of England

     Elizabeth, therefore, who was an excellent hypocrite

   • Their sorrows are most excellent.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:excellent

Antonyms

• poor
• terrible

Derived terms

• excellence
• excellently
• excellentness

Related terms

• excel

Translations

Adverb

excellent (comparative more excellent, superlative most excellent)

1. (obsolete) Excellently.
   • , New York Review Books 2001, p.287:

     Lucian, in his tract de Mercede conductis, hath excellent well deciphered such men's proceedings in his picture of Opulentia […].

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch excellent, from Middle French excellent, from Old French excellent, from Latin excell?ns.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??k.s??l?nt/
• Hyphenation: ex?cel?lent
• Rhymes: -?nt

Adjective

excellent (comparative excellenter, superlative excellentst)

1. (formal) excellent, splendid

   Synonyms: uitmuntend, uitstekend

Inflection

Related terms

• excellentie

French

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin excellens.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k.s?.l??/

Adjective

excellent (feminine singular excellente, masculine plural excellents, feminine plural excellentes)

1. excellent; splendid

Usage notes

This adjective is generally placed before the noun it modifies.

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k.s?l/

Verb

excellent

1. third-person plural present indicative of exceller
2. third-person plural present subjunctive of exceller

Further reading

• “excellent” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Latin

Verb

excellent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of excell?

Middle French

Noun

excellent m (feminine singular excellente, masculine plural excellens, feminine plural excellentes)

1. excellent

Occitan

Etymology

From Latin excell?ns.

Pronunciation

Adjective

excellent m (feminine singular excellenta, masculine plural excellents, feminine plural excellentas)

1. excellent

Related terms

• excelléncia
• excellir