different between laughter vs joviality

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.

English

Etymology

From French jovialité

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -æl?ti

Noun

joviality (countable and uncountable, plural jovialities)

1. The state of being jovial; jollity or conviviality.
   • 1651, Fulgenzio Micanzio, The Life of the Most Learned Father Paul, Of the Order of the Servie, translator not credited, London: Humphrey Moseley and Richard Marriot, p. 13,^[1]

     The Duke […] willingly interposed the pleasures of wit and facetiousnesse with the grave cares of his government, tempering wisely his troubles with Joviality of words and actions […]

   • 1861, Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, Chapter 5,^[2]

     I noticed that Mr. Pumblechook in his hospitality appeared to forget that he had made a present of the wine, but took the bottle from Mrs. Joe and had all the credit of handing it about in a gush of joviality.

   • 1881, Mark Twain, The Prince and the Pauper, Chapter 10,^[3]

     This remark sobered the father’s joviality, and brought his mind to business.

   • 1922, Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt, Chapter 24, IV,^[4]

     By the joviality of their insults Babbitt knew that he had been taken back to their hearts, and happily he rose.

   • 1961, V. S. Naipaul, A House for Mr Biswas, Vintage International, 2001, Part Two, Chapter 6,

     Joviality fled from the table, Shekhar studied his cards. Owad frowned at his. His foot was tapping on the concrete floor. More watchers came.

   • 2014, Benjamin Poore, “Carry on campus: The satirical needling deflates the high-minded ideals of the groves of academy,” The Independent, 6 November, 2014,^[5]

     Success on social media tends to instil in the early career academics and postgraduates who achieve it, after merciless encouragement from outreach and impact gurus in HE management, a kind of unwavering, po-faced self-belief in their own genius and thus the vital urgency of their research, the overall effect being a strange mixture of corporate cynicism and uneasy joviality.

Translations