bliss

From Middle English bliss, from Old English bliss, variant of earlier blīds, blīþs (“joy, gladness”), from Proto-West Germanic *blīþisi (“joy, goodness, kindness”).

• IPA^(key): /blɪs/
• Rhymes: -ɪs

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

bliss (countable and uncountable, plural blisses)

1. Perfect happiness.

   The afternoon at the spa was utter bliss.

   • a. 1851, William Wordsworth, “The French Revolution as It Appeared to Enthusiasts at Its Commencement”, in Henry Reed, editor, The Complete Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Philadelphia, Pa.: Hayes & Zell, , published 1860, →OCLC, page 188:

     Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, / But to be young was very heaven!

   • 1918 August, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Bliss”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 116:

     What can you do if you are thirty and, turning the corner of your own street, you are overcome, suddenly, by a feeling of bliss—absolute bliss!—as though you'd suddenly swallowed a bright piece of that late afternoon sun and it burned in your bosom, sending out a little shower of sparks into every particle, into every finger and toe?

   • 2002, CYNE (lyrics and music), “Steady”, in Movements‎:

     So who is this saying that money is bliss? / Your logic remiss / You and the devil about to kiss

From earlier blīds, blīþs, from Proto-West Germanic *blīþisi.

• IPA^(key): /bliss/,

bliss f

1. joy, bliss
   • 10th century, Exeter Book Riddle 8‎:

     Iċ…, eald ǣfensceōp, eorlum bringe blisse in burgum.

     I…, old evening scop, bring bliss in towns for brave men.

Strong ō-stem:

• Middle English: blys, blice, blisce, blise, blesse
  • English: bliss