arethinn: glowing green spiral (Default)
Arethinn ([personal profile] arethinn) wrote2004-01-28 02:39 am
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happiness

OK, I've officially seen the word "happy" enough times today that it's lost its meaning. Anyone care to provide an etymology?
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[identity profile] juuro.livejournal.com 2004-01-28 03:01 am (UTC)(link)
"lucky," from hap "chance, fortune" (as in "haphazard"), sense of "very glad" first recorded c.1390. Ousted O.E. eadig (from ead "wealth, riches") and gesælig, which has become silly. From Gk. to Ir., a great majority of the European words for "happy" at first meant "lucky." An exception is Welsh, where the word used first meant "wise."

[identity profile] zaecus.livejournal.com 2004-01-28 07:03 am (UTC)(link)
And it suddenly occurs to me that I've never looked up the etymology of that word. I Thank you both for this. More than you know.

Entymology...

[identity profile] bluesidhe.livejournal.com 2004-01-28 08:05 am (UTC)(link)
Cool...I love entymology. Used to spend a lot of time going through the dictionary looking up word entymology when I was a "troubled teen"...Being grounded a lot gave me A LOT of time. I probably read through most of the Encyclopedia Brittanica...LOL!!!

Happy is a word that seems fleeting at the moment...

Blue!

[identity profile] juuro.livejournal.com 2004-01-28 08:55 am (UTC)(link)
Did you actually find the word "entymology"?

[identity profile] bluesidhe.livejournal.com 2004-01-28 09:03 am (UTC)(link)
Oh yes! It's the study of history of the language of Ents ;-) Look it up!

LOL!!! Now how did that "n" get in there. (blush!)
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