rejoice

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English rejoisen, also rejoicen and rejoishen,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Old French rejoir, also resjoir, through its lengthened present stem rejoiss-.^[5][6][7][2] The French verb, meaning to gladden or rejoice, is formed from re-, here probably intensive, and joir (“to be glad”);^[6][3][8] Hoad, Klein and the Shorter Oxford analyse it as re- added to esjoir, from es- (Latin ex) and joir.^[7][9][10] Joir, later jouir, comes through Vulgar Latin *gaudiō from Latin gaudeō (“to rejoice”),^[11][9] the ultimate source of joy.^[12][4] In Anglo-Norman resjoir is recorded from 1194–99, meaning to cheer or gladden and also to enjoy possession of something.^[13] Middle English also had rejoien, used by Chaucer.^[3][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

To own or possess, to enjoy the possession of: about 1303, in Robert Mannyng's Handlyng Synne.^[6][3][2] The Shorter Oxford records this sense from Middle English to the late 16th century.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The first English sense, to own and enjoy something,^[6][3][12] lasted into the 16th century: Trench quotes Capgrave's chronicle, in which a king and his people were to rejoyce the land beyond the Seine,^[15] and Ayto quotes Fenton's Golden Epistles (1577) on rich men who are not free to rejoice and use their wealth.^[12] Ayto suggests that this sense may lie behind the modern rejoice in, to possess.^[12] From the mid-14th century the verb also meant to gladden or make joyful,^[3][8] and in the Psalter of about 1350 to give praise to.^[5] The intransitive sense, to feel or show great joy, is recorded from about 1390,^[5][3] and Chaucer used the word 17 times.^[16] In the 15th and 16th centuries it could also mean to have someone as husband or wife.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined the transitive verb as to exhilarate or gladden.^[17] The humorous rejoice in, to have something as a source of pride, or simply to have something odd, such as a name, dates from 1822.^[5][10] In Shropshire dialect rejoice was used of food that rises on the stomach.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1303 – to own, possess (Mannyng's Handlyng Synne).^[6][2]
• c. 1350 – to give praise to (obsolete by 1445).^[5]
• c. 1370 – to gladden, delight.^[6]
• c. 1390 – intransitive, to feel great joy, with at or over.^[5]
• c. 1405 – to rejoice, without complement (Chaucer, Melibeus).^[5]
• c. 1425 – in hunting, to reward a hound (obsolete).^[5]
• 1445 – noun rejoice, joy, rejoicing.^[5]
• 1458 – rejoice in, to be made joyful by.^[5]
• 1822 – rejoice in, to possess something as a source of pride.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To feel or show great joy or delight: The villagers rejoiced at the news of the harvest.^[19][4][5]
2. rejoice in: to be glad about or delight in something; humorously, to have something, especially an odd name or title.^[5][10]
3. (archaic) To make someone joyful; to gladden.^[19][4][10]
4. (obsolete) To own and enjoy the possession of something.^[10][2][5]

Word family

• rejoicer
• rejoicingly
• rejoiceful
• unrejoiced
• unrejoicing

Related words

• joy
• enjoy
• rejoicing
• gaudy

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
12. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
16. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ 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)
19. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins