different between levity vs swiftness

English

Etymology

Coined in 1564, from Latin levit?s (“lightness, frivolity”), from levis (“lightness (in weight)”). Cognate to lever, and more distantly, light.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /?l?.v?.ti/

Noun

levity (usually uncountable, plural levities)

1. Lightness of manner or speech, frivolity; lack of appropriate seriousness; inclination to make a joke of serious matters.
2. (obsolete) Lack of steadiness.
3. The state or quality of being light, buoyancy.

   • Most of the confidences were unsought - frequently I have feigned sleep, preoccupation or a hostile levity […]

   • 1838, Robert Montgomery Bird, Peter Pilgrim

     […] it would really seem as if there was something nomadic in our natures, a principle of levity and restlessness […]

   • 1869, Mary Somerville, On Molecular and Microscopic Science 1.1.12:

     Hydrogen […] rises in the air on account of its levity.

4. (countable) A lighthearted or frivolous act.

Antonyms

• gravity

Derived terms

• levitous

Translations

References

English

Etymology

From Middle English swiftnesse, swyftnesse, from Old English swiftnes (“swiftness”), equivalent to swift +? -ness.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sw?ftn?s/
• Hyphenation: swift?ness

Noun

swiftness (usually uncountable, plural swiftnesses)

1. The state of being swift.

Synonyms

• celerity
• haste
• rapidity

Translations