felicity

From Middle English felicite (“bliss, happiness, joy; delight, pleasure; a source of happiness; good fortune; prosperity; well-being; of a planet: in an influential position”) ,^[1] borrowed from Old French felicité (modern French félicité (“bliss, happiness; felicity”)), from Latin fēlīcitātem, the accusative singular of fēlīcitās (“fertility, fruitfulness; happiness, felicity; good fortune; success”), from fēlix (“happy; blessed, fortunate, lucky; fertile, fruitful; prosperous; auspicious, favourable”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to nurse, suckle”))^[2] + -itās (a variant of -tās (suffix forming nouns indicating a state of being)).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fɪˈlɪsɪti/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /fəˈlɪsəti/,

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪsɪti
• Hyphenation: fe‧li‧ci‧ty

felicity (countable and uncountable, plural felicities)

1. (uncountable) Happiness; (countable) an instance of this.

   Antonym: infelicity

   • 1513, Henry Bradshaw, edited by Edward Hawkins, The Holy Lyfe and History of Saynt Werburge: Very Frutefull for All Christen People to Rede (Remains Historical & Literary Connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Chester Published by The Chetham Society; volume XV), The Chetham Society, published 1848:

     Whan this ſayd monument diſcouered was / Suche a ſuauite and fragrant odoure / Aſcended from the corps by ſingular grace / Paſſyng all worldly ſwetnes and ſauour / That all there present that day and hour / Suppoſed they had ben / in the felicite / Of erthely paradiſe / without ambiguite.

   • 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, , London: W Taylor , →OCLC, page 3:

     [T]he wiſe Man gave his Teſtimony to this, as the juſt Standard of true Felicity, when he prayed to have neither Poverty nor Riches.

   • 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter I, in Mansfield Park: , volume I, London: for T Egerton, , →OCLC, page 2:

     […] Mr. and Mrs. Norris began their career of conjugal felicity with very little less than a thousand a year.

   • 1862, M[arcus] Aurelius Antoninus [i.e., Marcus Aurelius], “Book V”, in George Long, transl., The Thoughts of the Emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus, London: Bell and Daldy, , →OCLC, page 66:

     For two reasons then it is right to be content with that which happens to thee; the one, because it was done for thee and prescribed for thee, and in a manner had reference to thee, originally from the most ancient causes spun with thy destiny; and the other, because even that which comes severally to every man is to the power which administers the universe a cause of felicity and perfection, nay even of its very continuance.

2. (uncountable) An apt and pleasing style in speech, writing, etc.; (countable) an apt and pleasing choice of words.
3. (uncountable, rare) Good luck; success; (countable) An instance of unexpected good luck; a stroke of luck; also, a lucky characteristic.
4. (uncountable, semiotics) Reproduction of a sign with fidelity.

   The quotation was rendered with felicity.

5. (countable) Something that is either a source of happiness or particularly apt.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. The First Part , 2nd edition, part 1, London: Richard Iones, , published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene vii:

     […] to weare our ſelues & neuer reſt,
     Untill we reach the ripeſt fruites of all,
     That perfect bliſſe and ſole felicitie,
     The ſweet fruition of an earthly crowne.

   • 2007 August 7, Joshua Ferris, “Table for two”, in The New York Times‎, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 25 December 2020:

     The season’s main attraction, the felicities of the sun, dimmed in the light of our competition and our growing friendliness.

• felicitous
• felicitously
• infelicity

• felicity (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia