Word of the Day

Saturday June 19, 2010

jocund [JOCK-uhnd; JOH-kuhnd]

adjective

Full of or showing high-spirited merriment; cheerful; mirthful.

"Here, then, gentle discussions and innocent pleasantries were heard," Castiglione wrote of the delightful ambience fostered by Elisabetta Gonzaga, the duchess who presided over the fabled gatherings, "and on everyone's face a jocund gaiety could be seen depicted, so much so that the house could be called the very abode of joyfulness.

David Laskin, "Lessons in Renaissance Cool", New York Times, Jun 21, 2009
As a good liberal, I'm ready to embrace, and pay for, more efficient lighting. And yet, I'm already feeling what might be called Edison nostalgia. Even a bare bulb hanging from a wire is a thousand times more bewitching, more jocund and welcoming than a CFL [compact fluorescent light bulb] screwed into the most arty fixture featured in Wallpaper magazine.

Dan Neil, "800 words; Light of My Life", Los Angeles Times, Feb 3, 2008
Fortune, I take it, was in her most jocund mood when she heaped her gifts in this fashion on Van Twiller, who was, and will be again, when this cloud blows over, the flower of Our Club.

Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836 - 1907) An American poet and novelist. Mademoiselle Olympe Zabriski (1873)

Origin of the Word

Jocund, approximately 1500, derives from Old French jocond, from Latin jucundus "pleasant," originally "helpful," from juvare "to please, benefit, help."