joy

Pronunciation

• IPA: /dʒɔɪ/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English joie,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French joie (“pleasure, delight, bliss”) (11th century),^[4][2] from Latin gaudia, plural of gaudium “joy, gladness”, taken as a feminine singular,^[4][2][5] from gaudēre “to rejoice”,^[4][2][6] from Proto-Indo-European *gau- (“to rejoice”),^[4] also the source of Greek gēthein “to rejoice”.^[2][3] It is related to enjoy, rejoice and gaudy.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A feeling of pleasure and delight: about 1200 in Etymonline,^[4] probably before 1200 in Barnhart, in the Ancrene Riwle,^[2] before 1225 in the OED.^[7]

Semantic evolution

A source of pleasure is from about 1300,^[4] or about 1275 in the OED,^[7] as is a state of happiness, especially the bliss of heaven.^[7] As a term of endearment it is from the 1580s.^[4][7] Joyful is from about 1250,^[2] and joyous from about 1300.^[2] The verb, to feel gladness, is from the mid-13th century,^[4] but it is now largely displaced by enjoy and rejoice;^[4] in Middle English joy with the hands meant to clap.^[4] The colloquial no joy, no success, is from 1945.^[7] Joyride is American, from 1908–09,^[4][2] and joystick later.^[8] In the south of England joy was also a dialect name for the jay.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – gladness, delight.^[4]
• c. 1250 – joyful.^[2]
• mid-13th century – verb.^[4]
• c. 1275 – a source of joy.^[7]
• 1580s – a term of endearment.^[4]
• 1908 – joyride.^[2][4]
• 1945 – no joy.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. Intense happiness or delight.
2. A person or thing that causes delight: she's a joy to work with.
3. The expression of such feeling.
4. (British informal) Success or satisfaction: any joy with the plumber?

Verb

1. (literary) To rejoice.

Word family

• joyless
• joylessly
• joylessness
• kill-joy
• joypop
• joyride
• enjoy
• enjoyment

Related words

• rejoice
• gaudy

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)