pleasant

English

Etymology

From Middle English plesaunte, from Old French plaisant. Present participle of English please. Related to Dutch plezant (“full of fun or pleasure”). Partly displaced Old English wynsum, which became Modern English winsome.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈplɛzənt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛzənt

Adjective

pleasant (comparative pleasanter or more pleasant, superlative pleasantest or most pleasant)

1. Giving pleasure; pleasing in manner.

   We had a pleasant walk around the town.

   It wasn't so hot outside, but pleasant enough to have lunch in the garden.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Psalm 133:1:

     Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!

   • 1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter IX, in Pride and Prejudice: , volume I, London: for T Egerton, , →OCLC, page 94:

     “I cannot see that London has any great advantage over the country, for my part, except the shops and public places. The country is a vast deal pleasanter, is not it, Mr. Bingley?”

   • 1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Three. The Second of the Three Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas, London: Chapman & Hall, , →OCLC, page 109:

     “I was only going to say,” said Scrooge’s nephew, “that the consequence of his taking a dislike to us, and not making merry with us, is, as I think, that he loses some pleasant moments, which could do him no harm. I am sure he loses pleasanter companions than he can find in his own thoughts, either in his mouldy old office, or his dusty chambers.

   • 1871 December 27 (indicated as 1872), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC:

     “O Oysters, come and walk with us!” / The Walrus did beseech. / “A pleasant walk, a pleasant talk, / Along the briny beach:

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant.

   • 1989, Hilary Mantel, chapter 2, in Fludd‎, New York: Henry Holt, published 2000, page 25:

     “ […] If you pray to St. Anne before twelve o’clock on a Wednesday, you’ll get a pleasant surprise before the end of the week.”

2. (obsolete) Facetious, joking.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     [T]ell the pleasant prince this mock of his / Hath turn’d his balls to gun-stones […]

   • 1600, Thomas Dekker, The Shoemaker’s Holiday‎, London: Dedication:

     […] I present you here with a merrie conceited Comedie, called the Shoomakers Holyday, acted by my Lorde Admiralls Players this present Christmasse, before the Queenes most excellent Maiestie. For the mirth and pleasant matter, by her Highnesse graciously accepted; being indeede no way offensiue.

Synonyms

• agreeable
• nice
• pleasurable

Antonyms

• disagreeable
• nasty
• unpleasant

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

pleasant (plural pleasants)

1. (obsolete) A wit; a humorist; a buffoon.
   • 1603, Philemon Holland, transl., The Philosophie, commonlie called the Morals written by the learned philosopher Plutarch of Chæronea‎, London, page 1144:

     […] Galba was no better than one of the buffons or pleasants that professe to make folke merry and to laugh.

   • 1696, uncredited translator, The General History of the Quakers by Gerard Croese, London: John Dunton, Book 2, p. 96,

     Yea, in the Courts of Kings and Princes, their Fools, and Pleasants, which they kept to relax them from grief and pensiveness, could not show themselves more dexterously ridiculous, than by representing the Quakers, or aping the motions of their mouth, voice, gesture, and countenance:

Anagrams

• planates, platanes