Etymologically
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joy

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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

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)