felicity

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English felicite,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French felicité (“happiness”),^[4][5][3][6] also felicité, recorded in Anglo-Norman from about 1360–79 in the senses good fortune, happiness and bliss,^[7][8] from Latin fēlīcitās (“fruitfulness; happiness”),^[4][5][6][3] formed from fēlīx (“fruitful; fortunate, happy”) and the suffix that gives English -ity.^[9][10] Collins takes it directly from Latin.^[11] The adjective first meant "fruitful" and only later "favourable, fortunate" and "happy";^[12][10] it is related to fēcundus (“fruitful”), the source of fecund, to fētus and to fīlius (“son”).^[12][10][6] Etymonline and Klein trace it to Proto-Indo-European *dhe(i)- (“to suck, suckle”),^[5][6] whose derivatives meant to suckle, produce or yield;^[5] Etymonline calls it a relic of Rome's beginnings as a farming community, since what brought happiness was what produced crops.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Happiness, and a source of happiness: Chaucer used both senses, in the Legend of Good Women (c. 1385) and the Clerk's Tale (c. 1386),^[4] and he has the word twenty times in all.^[13] Etymonline dates it to the late 14th century.^[5] The MED's first quotations, from Gower's Confessio Amantis (before 1393), have the sense prosperity or good fortune, and of a planet, a position of influence.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word covered both inner happiness and outward good fortune: Gower used it for prosperity (1393) and, in astrology, for the favourable aspect of a planet,^[4][2] and the sense prosperity, success is now rare,^[4][14] while the plural felicities, successful enterprises, was used from 1625 to 1706, from Bacon on.^[4] In modern use the sense of happiness has grown stronger, toward intense happiness or bliss.^[4] From 1605, again in Bacon, it was also applied to art and speech, for a happy gift of expression or a well-chosen phrase;^[4][5] Weekley compares felicitous phrase with happy thought.^[15] Johnson (1755) defined it as "happiness; prosperity; blissfulness; blessedness".^[16] In the philosophy of language, a performative utterance has felicity when it is appropriate, as when the words I appoint you are spoken by someone with the authority to appoint.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1385 – a source of happiness, a blessing, in Chaucer's Legend of Good Women.^[4]
• c. 1386 – the state of being happy, in Chaucer's Clerk's Tale.^[4]
• 1393 – prosperity, good fortune; of a planet, a favourable aspect (now obsolete), in Gower.^[4][2]
• 1542 – take felicity in, to take delight in (obsolete by 1758).^[4]
• 1605 – a happy faculty in art or speech; aptness of expression.^[4][5]
• 1625 – plural, prosperous circumstances, successes (obsolete by 1706).^[4]
• 1665 – a happy inspiration, a well-chosen expression.^[4]
• 1757 – a stroke of good fortune; a fortunate trait.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Great happiness; bliss, or an instance of it.^[3][17][11]
2. Something that causes or brings happiness.^[3][17][11]
3. A fitting and pleasing manner or style, especially in expression: She wrote with rare felicity.^[3][11][4]
4. An apt and well-chosen expression or touch: the many felicities of the translation.^[3][11][4]
5. (philosophy) The appropriateness of a speech act to its circumstances.^[11]
6. (archaic) Good fortune; prosperity.^[3][4][14]

Word family

• felicitous
• infelicity

Related words

• felicific
• felicitate
• felicitation
• fecund
• fetus
• filial
• feminine

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
14. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster